A Reflection on Black History Month- By Christion Barnes

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Mr. Christion Barnes-Software Engineer-SupplyHive

To Honor Black History Month- We will highlight several African America professionals across the Start-up/Software Community as part of our Representation Matters Series. Our first highlight is non other than our very own Mr. Christion Barnes. Christion grew up on the South Side of Chicago where he attended Morgan Park High School. With various hobbies that stoked his creative nature such as photography, he never imagined that a career in Software engineering was a possibility. It was during his studies at Iowa State University that he was inspired by his roommate to pursue a degree in computer software engineering. As a field with low representation in black and brown communities, Christion serves as a trailblazer in the software engineering field. On the SupplyHive team he works on a major account as the point developer alongside a team comprised of our customer service and sales professionals. Knowing that he is one of the ‘few’ for now, Christion took some time to reflect on the significance of his role against the backdrop of Black History Month.

Black History Month in America. Is it a time for celebration, or maybe a time for mourning? For me, I like to think it is a time for reflection. A reflection on how far we, as Black people, and how we as a nation, have come. Reflecting on the present state of our society, and lastly, reflecting on what our future could be. When we reflect on this turbulent time (that was not that long ago I might add) we as a people have the opportunity to not only see the mistakes of the past, but LEARN from them. However, learning from them is also not enough. Growing up, my step-father instilled in me that you haven’t really learned something unless you have the ability to apply the knowledge that you have learned. 
 
In today’s ever-changing society and many technological advancements, what better time to apply the lessons that we have learned from our troubled past? As the tech industry and digital era are continuously evolving, we can make sure that everyone has a piece of the pie. Blacks (and other minority groups) need and deserve access to good education, life-changing opportunities, even luxury, if we are ever going to move forward as a truly unified nation.  

A large part of the reason why as, a young black man from the South side of Chicago, I decided to entrench myself in the tech industry. I did this despite the fact that while  growing up I was never afforded that opportunity or relevant education before college (unlike many of my old college classmates). I want to show other young black men and women that this is our generation’s gold rush (maybe bitcoin rush), and now is our time to stake our place in the future of America.

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Did you know that Microsoft released the first version of Excel around this time in 1985? Do you know what else was released in 1985? The compact disc! Do you know what has gracefully lived its technological life and gone over the rainbow bridge to hang out with discmen and 8-tracks and even iPods in digital heaven? CDs. Do you know what has not? EXCEL.

Why do we still kill ourselves with macros and pivot tables and version control? Since we’re talking about rating suppliers today, let’s take a look at the typical process:

Here comes some analyst-speak: “Aware that procurement organizations have handled essential [supplier ratings] in the supplier management process either through minimally supportive survey functionality in P2P and S2P suites or, more commonly, through enormous spreadsheets, SupplyHive set out to create a tool for evaluating employee satisfaction with suppliers that could gather and analyze needed data about supplier performance while offering a streamlined, B2C-like consumer experience.”

As a quick run-down, here’s why Spend Matters thinks getting supplier rankings out of Excel is a critical switch to drive digital transformation, not just for procurement departments, but also for business units (Marketing, HR/Benefits, Legal, IT, we’re looking at you), supplier diversity initiatives (more on that in a future post) and for C-Suites and boards (we’ll talk about that later too):

  1. The obvious: time, money, energy, accuracy. Suppliers on average are the biggest line-item on a company’s budget sheet. An average supplier manager can spend up to twelve hours per quarter preparing for a single quarterly business review. Reviewers who are time pressured to review on deadline give low quality reviews just to get it done.
  2. 360-degree feedback. Shouldn’t suppliers rank you too, as a customer? Shouldn’t ranking questions and criteria change over time, as your relationship evolves and matures? Shouldn’t new employees be able to see the history of a relationship over time? Yes, yes, and yes. “SupplyHive subscribes to the philosophy that gathering and managing performance-related information (e.g., basic supplier info, performance metrics, action plans) does not constitute true supplier relationship management; rather, the process of gathering, measuring and managing feedback (from both sides of the relationship) is fundamental to nurturing and improving a relationship (or, in worst-case scenarios, in determining whether it’s time for a breakup).” Note: EXCEL CAN’T DO THIS. It’s about driving engagement and getting all stakeholders excited to participate because, after all, the more relevant data you can get from the business, the more effective they become within their work.
  3. It’s pretty: The SupplyHive approach to UX/UI development almost religiously focuses on being as modern and user friendly as possible. Its dashboard is not really an enterprise software dashboard; instead, it is sleek, modern and interactive. Beyond visual elements alone, SupplyHive also puts a smart focus on applying automation where appropriate: automatic reminders to reviewers when a review is incomplete and automatic aggregation and summary of reviews and sentiment into a shareable, media-like format if you’re not an informational designer (we’re not, and assume you likely have better things to do).  SupplyHive thereby eliminates the tedious, time-consuming process of supplier review, which frees up sourcing professionals’ time to do what they do best—making strategic decisions, solving problems, and exploring innovations with suppliers to deliver value to their organization.

While assessing the health and performance of a business relationship that could account for millions of dollars of spend is, of course, not a simple task, the approach that many organizations take to executing these reviews is not necessarily wise. It’s time for a change, folks. SupplyHive allows you to have positive and dynamic engagement with your suppliers throughout the lifecycle of these relationships to proactively identify corrective actions, strengthen the relationship via transparency, and drive innovation between you and your supplier partners.

Portions of this article are quoted from independent Spend Matters PRO coverage of SupplyHive. Spend Matters was in no way paid to say nice things about SupplyHive. Spend Matters PRO subscribers can read the full analysis (including a detailed SWOT dive into product strengths and weaknesses) here: Part 1 / Part 2