Enhanced Digital Certification— A New Digital Era for Engaging Diverse Businesses
In today’s complex sourcing landscape, a diverse and inclusive supplier base is now widely accepted as a procurement best practice; from creating bottom-line savings and creating future demand, to projecting a better more socially oriented image. Hence, supplier diversity initiatives are highly recommended if you’re looking for a sustainable way to promote innovation and economic impact while creating competitive advantages that can differentiate your organization.
A study released by the Hackett Group found companies with diverse supplier lists drive an additional $3.6 million to a company’s bottom line for every $1 million spent on operations costs in procurement. This is literally “doing well by doing good.”
It would seem that establishing and implementing a supplier diversity program shouldn’t be difficult, but it is. One common refrain by buyers is that it can be difficult to find diverse suppliers, especially in niche industry spaces.
Current Challenges
To find one of the reasons behind this challenge, let’s look at the supplier’s side. To be a qualified diverse supplier, they must:
- Be well-qualified, including creating a business, surviving, being innovative, and being as good or better than their competition for cost, quality, and service.
- Spend time and money to go through a lengthy process to be certified as diverse-owned. It’s no surprise that many small business owners view this as an added “tax” on their business.
Hence, many suppliers decide to be self-identified as diverse instead of getting certified, which unfortunately does not meet many buyer’s inclusion program requirements, especially in big corporations.
As a result, it negatively affects procurement professionals’ opportunity to expand their diversity program, and diverse suppliers get left out. This is the paradox we sought to break.
With a mission of Making it Easier to Do Business™, SupplierGATEWAY is thrilled to launch Enhanced Digital Certification (EDC), a new innovative and robust digital certification program – a powerful tool to address all the challenges we mentioned.
What is Enhanced Digital Certification?
Enhanced Digital Certification™ (EDC) is a new, innovative and powerful digital certification program designed to enable all types of diverse businesses to reduce the hassle of acquiring a valid certification of diverse ownership.
EDC is gaining widespread acceptance by some of the most prominent advocates of inclusive purchasing – all of whom also seek to create new economic impact at scale. By digitizing and streamlining the diversity certification process, we have made it easier, faster and much less costly for suppliers to achieve diversity certification.
Verify Your Suppliers Electronically 24/7 At No Cost
Everything you need to know about a business’s diverse ownership is in this digital certification. You can look up the business information by scanning the ECC QR code, entering the certification ID in your SupplierGATEWAY portal or accessing the SupplierGATEWAY EDC Validation API connected to your ERP and purchasing systems.
Unique QR Code can be used to validate certification status 24/7! EDC QR Codes can also be placed on websites, literature and emails.
Only One Click to Get All Information You Need
You can easily find potential and current suppliers’ diverse information by using their certification ID in your portal’s search tools or even simply scanning the QR Code in the certificate to receive all information you need.
Detailed business information after scanning QR Code
Using the “Verify Enhancement Digital Certification” box to verify suppliers’ certifications
While You Read This Blog, EDC is Already Configured In Your Portal And Ready-To-Use
If you’re a buyer and currently using SupplierGATEWAY’s software, everything is FREE – there are no hidden costs. We hand you this power to freely and quickly source qualified diverse suppliers. Once a new supplier registers in your portal, they have an option to start the application.
EDC Process
Sponsorship Opportunities – Maximize Sourcing Power and Make A Significant Economic Impact on The Community
To make a mark on accelerating inclusion and diversity, we offer unique opportunities to sponsor diverse suppliers’ costs to get certified in a targeted area or market, or for specific diverse business groups that you are trying to engage. By doing so, your business speeds up a certification path for eligible suppliers. You get the satisfaction of directly contributing to the economic impact of every business you sponsor.
Our program has already gained traction, and we’re thrilled that Amazon Business and LA Clippers already took the initiative to grow their supplier bases speedily.
This is an excellent opportunity to show your commitment to the community and align with the corporation supplier diversity goals while aggressively sourcing the mass number of small and diverse suppliers your corporation is seeking.
Some additional benefits include:
- Create business opportunities for small and diverse businesses to grow and scale
- Reduce the risk of sourcing unqualified suppliers
- Rapidly expand the potential market
- Attract new potential qualified suppliers
- Drive innovation and build competitive advantages
- Improve bottom line and economic impact
Click here to get more information.
A Path To Business Success – Grow Together, Win Together
By encouraging your current and potential suppliers to get the EDC, your business increases the volume of opportunities to multiple suppliers – from minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBT-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, historically underutilized businesses.
In the past few years, the massive shifts underway in the business and social landscape towards inclusive procurement have proved that integrating supplier diversity into business operations is not just the right thing to do but also benefits everyone. EDC is here to help build your supplier diversity program successfully.
To learn more, please visit our website.