Enable’s Report Finds Trading Partners Struggle Due to Supply Chain Pressures, Lack of Communication and Data Silos 

Enable, the rebate management platform, today released its Overcoming the Misalignment Between Supply Chain Partners Report. Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers (trading partners) have a long history of needing to overcome siloed data streams, friction in workflows and misalignment on goals. Each of these behaviors causes friction within partnerships, leading to arguments, disputes and a lack of focus on delivering for their customers. 

The survey found that in order to work more effectively together, repair trust and form stronger, longer-lasting relationships, trading partners need to collaborate with each other. The results in the report are based on a survey of nearly 250 manufacturers, distributors, buying groups and retailers.

 Key insights from the report:

• Distributors and manufacturers face significant misalignment  

• • • Only 10% of distributors report strong alignment between themselves and trading partners. Data indicates that where alignment is strong, relationships are also strong. 
    • Approximately half of all distributors report a lack of alignment about 50% of the time, meanwhile 76% of manufacturers report alignment between them and their trading partners. This is the collaboration gap, where one partner feels more left out than another. 
    • 40% of manufacturers say they review goals monthly but only 23% of distributors report the same, resulting in a schism between what manufacturers believe they are communicating and in what distributors perceive they are receiving. This gap must be addressed if trading partners are to achieve more success together.

• Supply chain pressures have polarized relationships  

• • • Approximately 40% of distributors and buying groups report stronger relationships in spite of recent supply chain disruptions. 
    • 60% of manufacturers say that their relationships have remained stagnant or grown weaker.  
    • Only 25% of retailers believe their relationships have grown stronger.  

• Most organizations aren’t managing their relationships with legally binding agreements or contracts  

• • Only 8% of buying groups and distributors manage all their relationships with legally binding agreements. Nearly half of all manufacturers manage 50% or fewer of their relationships via contracts.  These findings are reinforced by a McKinsey survey, which found that companies that collaborate effectively across the supply chain have enjoyed dramatic reductions in inventories and costs, together with improvements in speed, service levels and customer satisfaction.

About Enable 

Enable helps manufacturers, distributors, and retailers take control of their rebate programs and turn them into an engine for growth. Starting with finance and commercial teams, Enable helps you better manage rebate complexity with automated real-time data and insights, accurate forecasting and stronger cross-functional alignment. This lets you — and everyone in your business — know exactly where you are with rebates. Then you can extend Enable externally to suppliers and customers, setting them up with one collaborative place to author, agree upon, execute on, and track the progress of deals.

*Report available to download here .