Vizibl has announced a new partnership with Supplier Day, the virtual events organiser dedicated to supplier engagement. This is not just about Vizibl using the Supplier Day platform for its own events. It is a partnership that will see, in time, an integration between the two products. It will enable Vizibl customers to take advantage of the Supplier Day event management within the context of the Vizibl supplier collaboration platform.
Mark Perera, CEO and Founder of Vizibl, said: “We have partnered with Supplier Day because of the many synergies in our beliefs around the benefits of close alignment and collaboration between large organisations and their suppliers. Though many companies offer event planning and event management services, none of them intimately understand the priorities and challenges of the procurement function in the way that Supplier Day does.
“Caitlyn and her team are well-acquainted with this operating environment and have an in-depth understanding of procurement’s needs, allowing Supplier Day to provide the best possible events that foster deep, collaborative relationships between enterprise organisations and their strategic suppliers. These relationships are mission-critical in the current business landscape, better enabling enterprise organisations to meet their ambitious objectives around sustainability, innovation, and resilience.”
Vizibl explained the partnership further: “As a services-based business that manages events, Supplier Day’s integration with Vizibl is solely focused on how to introduce Vizibl tech to Supplier Day events to ensure the actions those events drive are recorded.”
This is a shame as an integration that enabled the joint customer to feedback data onto the Vizibl platform would have been an interesting addition.
A Supplier Day virtual event can be a small regular event, a large launch or an annual event. For example, Bayer hosted a Supplier Day with 1,346 people from 46 countries at a single event. The event was £1.8 million cheaper than a physical event and saved 460 tonnes of CO2.
All about building relationships
An integration with Vizibl would allow connections to be recorded. They could spark innovation and provide the vehicle to capture, ideate and progress ideas collaboratively on the Vizibl digital platform.
Details of how the connection would work and how and where the data would be captured are still unclear. For example, would it enable attendees to make comments during a presentation? Perhaps starting a conversation with a supplier or speaker about something that was said. The potential of this is huge. It will enable virtual events to capture some of the conversations that even physical events fail to do, especially over a glass of wine.
Caitlyn Lewis, CEO and Founder of Supplier Day commented: “How we communicate determines whether we achieve our goals. Our aim at Supplier Day is to facilitate effective partnerships between enterprise businesses and their suppliers to drive mutual benefit. Running a supplier day allows our clients to communicate their strategic vision to their supply base, establish shared objectives and ways of working, and lay the foundations for collaborating on new solutions and innovations that benefit both buyer and supplier.
“Partnering with Vizibl, which provides the leading Supplier Collaboration and Innovation solution, therefore makes perfect sense. Both my team and the team at Vizibl are enabling enterprise business to meet their goals through more effective supplier relationships, supported by our deep understanding of the challenges facing the procurement function in an increasingly turbulent business landscape.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
The announcement about this partnership is just that. What happens next is more important. How will the two systems integrate and when will the integration become available? Supplier Day offers events dedicated to the supply chain. These events offer the sustainability benefits that virtual events provide. It is something that Bayer, Siemens and BAT have already taken advantage of.
The two companies are working together in other areas. Lewis will host the panel at one of Vizibl’s Decade of our Lives sustainability webinar series. On April 27th ‘Turning objectives into action’ will discuss how procurement can support the sustainability agenda.
Lewis will discuss the issue with Chief Procurement Officers from enterprise businesses, including Bayer’s Thomas Udesen. Udesen will no doubt talk about the sustainability benefits of the Supplier Day platform, including those above. Bayer is already an advocate of Supplier Day, following the Bayer event. He commented: “What we put in practice during this event will be a blueprint for how we work with our suppliers, both old and new, well into the future.”
This article was amended following feedback from Vizibl