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Supplier Management Technology - Our Technology

Most enterprise software projects under-deliver, because technology fails to meet the real needs of complex organizations. The widely-accepted philosophy “that one process fits all” does not hold true because processes cannot be fully harmonized due to varying business needs and local requirements. As such, HICX Solutions recognizes that technology needs to address the real issues at hand, such as simplifying change management, providing control and autonomy, and delivering value across the organizational matrix – and not just to the headquarter organization.

Many software providers are shifting their existing solutions in an attempt to meet the Supply Base Management market. Whether they arrive from eRFX, catalog management, or diversity, they often lack the necessary experience and the big-picture view of what complex organizations need for successful supplier management.

HICX Solutions has its roots firmly planted in Supplier Master Data management and Supplier Performance Management. Many years of research and development went into our state-of-the-art workflows, supplier data model, search algorithms, web interfaces, and processes. Built from the ground up with the most demanding, complex organization in mind, our technology has the capabilities and flexibility to fit your needs.

HICX’s cutting-edge technology allows organizations to successfully manage suppliers with:

  • Modular design for deployment and configuration flexibility
  • Comprehensive yet simple and fast implementation
  • Workflow designed for accuracy with minimal manual input and ease of use
  • Capabilities for quick and easily integration while ensuring data integrity
  • Data model to easily define characteristics and ensure quality and security standards are met
  • Exceptional match, merge, and duplicate handling to maintain a clean supplier master
  • Lookup tables designed for utilization and quick change
  • Lean onboarding that efficiently handles exceptions
  • Dynamic scripting to deal with the most complex needs
  • External auditor portal access
  • Full document management, versioning, and reporting
  • Search and retrieval capabilities for flexible and comprehensive searches
  • Reporting engine that gives you what you need when you need it

Please browse below to see why our technology is both different and better than others.

Deployment Flexibility
As many organizations have set policies on SaaS and on-premise deployments, our solution was designed to provide deployment options to fit either scenario, or a hybrid of each. Our modular design gives you the flexibility to choose the most appropriate deployment model based on your security and integration requirements.
deployment flexibility

  • Flexible deployment options: on-premise, SaaS, or hybrid
  • Reduced integration complexity
  • Compliance with security policies (e.g., spend data stays behind the firewall and allow suppliers to self-service on the Internet)
  • Capability of all modules to communicate in the most secure manner with one another, through a single encrypted channel
  • Choice of a number of environments such as sandbox, development, testing, and production

Speed of Implementation
Time is money; therefore, implementations need to be simple, but flexible enough to configure while maintaining enterprise scalability and robustness. We are confident that our implementation timelines are the quickest, yet most comprehensive, in the market.
speed of implementation

  • Leverage existing data standards and field templates.
  • Utilize predefined initiatives (e.g., FCPA, Sunshine Act, CSR, Tax, Diversity, Privacy, CMR reporting)
  • Use preconfigured integrations and punch-outs (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Dun and Bradstreet, banking information, Bridger, EU VAT validation, Acuity, USPS, OFAC/debarment)
  • Choose flexible staffing options, on site or remote
  • Capitalize on incremental process harmonization

Enterprise Workflow
Many will try and many will fail. Supplier onboarding and master data management processes cannot be fully harmonized, as there will always be business unit and local country requirements. Do not fall short of delivering full value because of manual steps and local workarounds. That’s why we designed an enterprise workflow model with an ability to manage both corporate and local/regional needs.
enterprise workflow

  • Easily define policies and data requirements with the relevant scope: region, country, business unit, commodity, etc.
  • Ensure that all mandatory requirements will be inherited at lower levels, based on the defined scope, yet still allow local organizations to easily extend with local requirements without affecting others
  • With flexible process definition, ensure high adoption and ease change management as stakeholders throughout the organization derive value
  • Enforce global policies while providing local autonomy

Workflow Designer Workbench
It should not require an IT department to hard code every workflow each time your process changes. That is why we developed the workflow designer workbench, giving a pilot of elements to quickly drag and drop processes into place.
workflow designer workbench

  • Easily create and update workflows through the use of a graphical workflow designer
  • Deploy new workflows on the fly, without starting/stopping your systems or affecting existing workflows – we support versioning of workflows so they will complete correctly.
  • Split activities between business and IT; then business designs and IT can add finishing touches for complex requirements
  • Easily trigger new workflows from within workflows

Integration
Supplier information is not meant to reside in a bubble. The ability to syndicate and receive data to both upstream and downstream systems is vital to achieve efficiencies, assure consistencies across systems, minimize costs, and avoid manual steps in your processes. HICX’s integration capabilities enable you to integrate quickly and easily while ensuring data integrity.
integration

  • Easily create inbound or outbound interfaces to syndicate and receive data
  • Support real-time integration into downstream systems, including native support for SAP and Oracle XML
  • Support integration into existing middleware, including Boomi, SAP Xi, TIBCO, Cast Iron, etc.
  • Support batch interfaces though flat files and web services
  • Schedule interfaces to run automatically, triggered on an ad-hoc basis or via workflow

Data Modeling
When you have multiple disparate systems, each managing their own supplier information, it is a seemingly impossible task to ensure all fields, standards, and hierarchies are mapped and harmonized. With HICX’s data model you can easily define your fields, their standards, validations, and permissions; and ensure all data quality objectives and security standards are met.
supplier data modeling

  • Easily define multiple different types of locations (e.g., Manufacturer, P-Card, Invoice address) and their respective individual fields
  • Track data down to the product-level
  • Establish calculated fields based on predefined business rules
  • Easily define field level validations, permissions, and conditions
  • Integrate highly dynamic information such as invoice, payment, etc.

Match, Merge and Duplicate Handling
The ability to have your supplier master clean on an ongoing basis is vital to efficient supplier management programs. Many solutions pick up with the assumption that the supplier data is clean. HICX enables you to create and maintain a clean supplier master in an automated and/or semi-automated manner.
match, merge and duplicate handling

  • Ability to dynamically define matching strategies to use with your MDM process to match and merge suppliers
  • Support for integrated duplicate checks for each new supplier request, based on your specific matching strategy
  • Ability to identify, compare, and merge records
  • Ability to perform matching on third-party data sources
  • High-performance (speed) matching of large volume of suppliers

Lookup Tables
Often standard information is held in simple tables – and periodically this information changes. In place of replicating data either by supplier/employee input or manually loading the information into the system, HICX enables the use and quick change of lookup tables. This alleviates the pain, for example, of looking up county risk standards.
look up tables

  • Quickly integrate reference data (Maplecroft, Transparency international, Zip/postal code to cities)
  • Ability to maintain mappings and cross-references
  • Commodity and country cross walks
  • Facilitation of risk/performance scoring

Lean Onboarding
In an ideal world all suppliers would be onboarded with the same process and rigor. We know, however, that there are exceptions driven by real business needs such as rush requests. HICX’s lean onboarding enables you to adapt to these exceptions in a consistent manner.
lean supplier onboarding

  • Intelligent handling of rush orders
  • Sped-up onboarding process when required
  • Streamlined approvals using defaults to automate the required tasks for the various compliance areas
  • Overall process integrity and consistency for rush orders
  • Ability to retrospectively carry out more exhaustive checks

Dynamic Scripting
There are times when very complex business logic is needed, where simple “point-and-click” is not sufficient. For ultimate flexibility, our dynamic scripting permits you to deal with the most complex of needs.
dynamic scripting

  • Embed “outside-of-the-system” logic
  • Easily embed complex calculations/business logic

External Auditor Portal Access
Ensuring compliance often requires different audits. In order to manage this process efficiently, all parties need to work off of a common platform to avoid manual, paper-based activities and duplicated effort. HICX’s external auditor capabilities facilitate this process.
portal access graphic

  • Securely allow third parties access to predefined information, processes, and documentation
  • Enable auditor-supplier collaboration through the audit forum
  • Publish an audit workflow and schedule
  • Easily allow auditors to maintain and update audit results
  • Track audit progress and history

Document Management
The need to collect and manage documents is vital to supplier management and compliance tracking. Whether certificates, contracts, business licenses, audits or tax forms, our solutions offer you full document management, versioning, and reporting.
document management

  • Complete document management capabilities such as check-in, check-out, and versioning
  • Support for collaborative document management
  • Support for in-browser “quick preview” of documents, eliminating the need to download sensitive information onto the desktop
  • Creation of new document types, with defined searchable, and mandatory, metadata on each
  • Support of document workflows, alerts, and expiries
  • Support of data retention and destruction, whether internally defined or externally mandated
  • Search within the content of the document or by defined meta-data fields
  • Use of dashlets to see recently added, modified, or expiring documents

Search & Retrieval Capabilities
Information is useless without the ability to find it. With our solution, you have access to the most flexible and comprehensive search capabilities.
search and retrieval capabilities

  • Indexing of all fields (core and dynamic), reports, surveys, and documents (metadata and content)
  • Powerful Google-style keyword search
  • Support of both “fuzzy matching” and “sounds like” searches
  • Support of structured search on predefined fields and/or user permissions
  • Support of search in multiple languages
  • Frequent search save for reuse

Reporting
The ability to have aggregate information beyond simple searches and KPIs demands flexible reporting capabilities. HICX’s embedded reporting engine enables you to report on what you want, when you want it, and where you want it.
reporting

  • Perform ad-hoc reporting across all fields (core and dynamic)
  • Export and integration into existing business intelligence tools
  • Store and save reports to personal or global folders

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