Yesterday, I reported on a trend among supply management organizations to question long-held and simplistic views of adoption. Increasingly, companies are reporting that enabling more users on a system can often yield inconsistent results and additional burdens, in the form of re-work and support.

Specifically, companies are finding that frequent or “power users” consistently employ standard best-practice approaches, are trained on the latest functionality, and yield the greatest results. However, infrequent users require considerable hand-holding, violate standard procedures and protocols, and yield variable results.

That’s not to say that broad user adoption of a system or an initiative is bad. On the contrary, user compliance is the most critical ingredient for program or solution success. However, success should not be measured in the number of users, but in maximizing value (e.g., spend under management, compliance, etc.) from the system.

In speaking with a number of supply management organizations in recent months, I have noticed the emergence of a new adoption model — one that blends the Center of Excellence (CoE) approach described in yesterday’s post with decentralized empowerment. (This “centralized oversight with decentralized ownership” model was at the core of Qualcomm’s contract management program success.)

Consider one of the world’s largest high-tech companies that has employed this hybrid-CoE model for its global e-sourcing initiative. Casual or infrequent users are empowered to initiate and define all sourcing projects. They can also execute basic e-RFx and reverse auction projects on their own. More complex tasks, such as complex auctions or optimization projects, are channeled to a group of power users or CoE that are trained on the latest approaches and solution functions. This CoE also provides training and support to users within various business  units and geographies. Says the program lead: “Our goal is to use e-sourcing for all of our spending. But we want to ensure that we are using the right approaches that can yield the greatest and most consistent results.”

A number of other companies from a wide range of industries — from financial services to process manufacturing — are also transitioning to this hybrid approach. A simplistic view of this model boils down to what you might call the Three R’s of Adoption:

• Right users: Enabling widespread adoption is a worthy goal. Just be sure to clearly define the tasks and priviledges for each user role. Answer this question: what sort of outcome would you expect from giving the keys to your new Mercedes to a 16-year-old with a learner’s permit? You can probably expect a similar outcome by giving access to the most robust system features to a novice user who has little experience, minimal training, and uses the system infrequently.
• Right approaches: Once you have the roles defined, clearly determine the function of each role. For example, empower casual or infrequent users to initiate, define, and view all tasks. They should also be enabled to conduct basic and projects on their own, such as an e-RFx or configuring a contract from pre-defined template or a library of pre-approved clauses. However, establish a CoE to manage training, provide support, and execute more complex activities.
• Right results: Understand what you are truly trying to accomplish with adoption. Focus your goals on tangible results, such as percentage of toal spending that is e-sourced, contracting cycle times, or compliance. Set up policies for each role to ensure data quality completeness and process compliance. Directly map incentives to achieving these goals. (I have previously reported how Hess triggered rapid adoption by setting goals for data quality and completness. The oil and gas giant wisely aligned these goals with their user’s bonus compensation. Within months, the percent of sourcing projects managed climbed from just 45% to greater than 85%. And the percent of required data entered into the e-sourcing system (e.g., category sourced, dollar volume, reason for sourcing, award details, etc.) climbed from 45% to greater than 95%.)   

If you’re just launching a supply management initiative or if your e-supply solution deployment has stalled, you may want to consider The Three R’s approach.

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