VIEW FROM THE TOP
opportunity to make the whole efficiency of the supply chain so much better. “Our Trading Hub works well by giving suppliers better information about their deals and helping build relationships with our Partners. It also helps the suppliers run their ccounts with NBG better. We have done a lot of development in this area, including adding mapping tools so the supplier can see where the Partners are buying their products and where they aren’t. Actually, most of our suppliers want us to give them more information, which is really encouraging. We have had over 100 suppliers through a series of workshops looking at how we want to operate: we want to have a sales plan with them, get the account managers on both sides working together to create something that works for everyone. That, I think, is an example of us really trying to build relationships with our suppliers based on our common objective. “Price files have been more of a challenge. Getting data out of suppliers has been very difficult and we need to have another look at this. Possibly we made it more complicated than it needed to be and we might have to go back to basics. It’s not really got the level of engagement from suppliers that we need it to have. Partners have told us it’s a priority to get right, so we need to find another route to achieving our objectives.
“For many suppliers creating an export file sounds easy but it’s not always that easy for them to get their IT departments to see it as a priority. I also think we could have made the system a little more user-friendly and thirdly, the massive array of products and types of products means there is just so much information to distill down.
“We expected everyone to have an EA number for all their products, but many of them don’t. So how do we then make a product unique on the system? It’s a really big change but if you want to be trading electronically with all the benefits that that brings, you have to make sure that you have your data in the right formats and this is a challenge for everyone.
“Amazon, for example, aren’t waiting for all their sellers to get their data in the right format, they’re telling them - if you want to trade on our platform you have to do it this way. End of story. At NBG, we have to make it a big enough focus so that suppliers will do it and I think we can. But we have to make sure that the system is easy to use and robust. “Yesterday, we launched a service where we take invoices electronically, shoot them down a pipeline and route them to the Hub. We have been testing it and so far it works
6
BMJ BUILDERS MERCHANTS JOURNAL
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There’s a whole new generation out there and we will have to play to their strengths, we can’t expect them to just play to ours...
well. It’s using the portal that NMBS helped us to develop two years ago, so we are in partnership with them. To me it is a complete no brainer: why would you not do it? “We are certainly open to new members and have had a very pleasing number of enquiries in the last few months. Plenty of businesses approach us, but we want to make sure that they are the right people, that have real specialist knowledge and they also need to be the right size. They need to add value to our business as much as we need to add value to theirs.
“A few years ago we made a conscious decision to focus on increasing the number of Partners in the plumbing and heating sector; we have now built up a really good group of plumbing and heating merchants. That’s been our strength, to take a sector and then try and bring specialists in within that area. We did something similar in the civils sector and we have opportunities in sectors like timber, roofing, tools and workwear. I am pleased with how we are doing at the moment in terms of Partner recruitment but we understand that these are big decisions. When you have been on your own for a long time and someone comes along with what could look like a dream ticket, you wonder where the catch is.
“I say that the only catch really is that they need to engage with us, but if they are the type of business who is prepared to get engaged then they are the sort of businesses we want to have on board with us. “Most new Partners understand that, while we require them to participate and have an input, at the same time they will be saving a load of their own business time as well by not having to sort out every single deal for themselves. Join NBG and there are 330 deals there, ready to roll.
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“By participting in the group and engaging with us, the Partners bring their own strengths that will help the group as a whole. We do, however, also require them to support the deals. They need to commit to the deals. That’s an issue that is really important to NBG and we work really hard at it. I’m sure we are not perfect but I believe we are as good as anyone else out there. The third thing we need new Partners to bring to the table is information. We want them to share information because there is always a little deal or a relationship out there that we need to know about in order to improve it for everybody. I think if people want to be part of a family and a community and to play their part in that community then NBG is right for them.”
January 2019
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