Supplier Segmentation is a new functionality in Scout that allows you assign a status, segment, and risk level to a Supplier contact within the Supplier Directory. In this article we will cover what each category is in the Supplier Segmentation and how to assign different Suppliers these categories.

When categorizing your Suppliers the first thing you will want to do is open up the correct Supplier contact that you would like to begin editing.  

Step 1: Navigate to Supplier Directory

Click the drop down arrow next to Navigate and click Suppliers: 

Step 2: Select a Supplier Contact

Either search in the search bar or click into the Supplier contact that you would like to begin editing. Once you have clicked into the Supplier contact, click Switch to Edit Mode to begin categorizing this Supplier:

Step 3: Categorize the Supplier

Now that we are in editing mode we can begin categorizing this Supplier.

Notice that there are 4 sections within the new Supplier Segmentation feature:

• Supplier Status
• Segmentation
• Risk
• Notes

The first category is Supplier Status. Click the drop down arrow to choose the appropriate status you would like to select for the Supplier. Notice that the options are: Not Approved, Reviewing, Approved, Out of Compliance, and Blacklisted: 

These Supplier statuses can help you differentiate where Suppliers stand with your Company.

The second category is the Segmentation category. This section is where you can segment out your Suppliers into different Tiers:

The third section is Risk. Here you can mark the Supplier as Green, Yellow or Red based on what level of risk you feel the Supplier poses to your company:

The final section of Supplier Segmentation is Notes. Here you can enter any notes that you would like to include that are relative to the Supplier contact.

Now that you have filled out each one of the Supplier Segmentation categories make sure to click Save & Exit Edit Mode to save your changes:

When you click into this Supplier contact you can see all of the different categories that you have assigned to this Supplier each time you click into the contact:

By leveraging Scout’s Supplier Segmentation functionality you can improve the way that you manage your company’s suppliers and ultimately bring better value to your company! 

Click here for more articles about Supplier Management