Where Are You in Your Supply Chain Career?

Understanding a supplier’s financial health and market position is essential for managing risk and building resilient supply chains. By analyzing financial data, benchmarking performance metrics, and evaluating market intelligence, supply management professionals can make more informed decisions and develop appropriate supplier engagement strategies.

In this course, you'll learn how to assess supplier financial performance using a variety of analytical tools and techniques. You'll explore how to interpret financial statements, apply benchmarking metrics, and leverage supply market data to gain a more complete understanding of a supplier's strengths, vulnerabilities, and competitive position.

By the end of the course, you'll be equipped to identify potential financial risks, support proactive supplier management strategies, and make data-driven recommendations that help protect your organization while strengthening supplier relationships and long-term business performance.

Recommended For

Procurement Professionals • Category Managers • Strategic Sourcing Professionals • Financial Analysts • Supply Chain Professionals

Success in procurement begins with a solid understanding of supply management principles, sourcing strategies, supplier relationships and organizational value creation. This foundational course introduces the essential concepts and practices that help professionals become effective contributors from the start of their careers.

Participants explore core procurement disciplines, current supply chain challenges and proven techniques used by leading organizations. Through practical examples and actionable tools, this course provides the knowledge needed to perform confidently in procurement and supply management roles.

Recommended For

Procurement Professionals • Supply Chain Professionals • Buyers • Purchasing Specialists • Cross-Functional Business Partners

Thousands of parts, years of purchasing data, and a small team with limited time to analyze it all. Where are the savings hiding, and how can AI help you find them?

Join Ryan Smith, Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist at Dimplex Thermal Solutions, to hear how a U.S. manufacturer uses AI to uncover sourcing opportunities and prepare for supplier negotiations. Drawing on 25 years of buying experience, Ryan shares what worked, what didn't, and how he decides which AI recommendations to trust.

Johannes Groll, Chief Product Officer at Tacto, a Sequoia-backed procurement platform that serves customers like Dimplex Thermal Solutions, Index Corporation and Makino, then demonstrates how AI turns spend and supplier data into savings opportunities, from comparing part prices to challenging supplier price increases. That includes the hardest case: custom parts with no catalog price, where comparable parts and market indices help buyers estimate what a part should cost and walk into negotiations with a defensible number.