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Glossary

What is supply management?

Supply management is finding, buying and managing the goods, services and suppliers an organization needs to operate and grow, from sourcing and contracts to inventory and supplier performance.

Schedule a Demo All Glossary Terms

What supply management covers

It is often used as another word for procurement, but it reaches further than buying. Supply management coordinates sourcing, contracting, supplier relationships, inbound logistics and inventory with budgets and the people who use what is bought.

Main goals

  • Cost control. buying at the right total cost, not only the lowest price.
  • Continuity. making sure supply does not run out.
  • Quality. getting what was specified.
  • Risk. reducing dependence on weak or risky suppliers.
  • Supplier value. working with suppliers on improvement and innovation.

Supply management versus supply chain management

Supply management focuses on the input side: suppliers and what the organization buys. Supply chain management covers the whole flow from raw materials to the end customer, including production, distribution and returns. Supply management is one part of the supply chain.

How Aavenir handles it

The Aavenir intelligence platform connects the contract to each part of supply management: sourcing in RFPflow, onboarding in Onboardingflow, obligations in Obligationflow and invoices in Invoiceflow, natively on ServiceNow or standalone.

Keep reading

Procurement process The procurement process is the set of steps an organization follows to find suppliers, agree terms and acquire goods...Read more Supply positioning model The supply positioning model sorts what you buy by two measures, spend and supply risk, so procurement can choose the right...Read more Supplier information management Supplier information management is a system and process for capturing, storing, updating and analyzing all your supplier...Read more

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Common questions

Is supply management the same as procurement?

They overlap heavily and many people use them interchangeably. Supply management usually implies a broader, more strategic role that includes supplier relationships, inventory and continuity, not only purchasing. Read about the procurement process.

What skills does supply management need?

Negotiation, market and cost analysis, contract knowledge, supplier relationship skills, risk judgment and comfort with data. Increasingly it also needs the ability to work with AI tools that read contracts and spend. See the Aavenir platform.

How does supply management reduce risk?

By knowing who the critical suppliers are, qualifying alternatives, writing protective terms into contracts, monitoring supplier health and acting early on warning signs. Read about supply chain resilience.

Have a question we have not answered? Ask the Expert

Schedule a demo

See your contracts run on one record.

  • 1 A 30 minute walkthrough Built around your team, whether that is procurement, legal, IT or finance.
  • 2 Your contracts, not ours Bring a few sample agreements and watch Aavenir AI extract and review them.
  • 3 ServiceNow or standalone We show the deployment that fits the systems you already run.

Prefer to talk first? Contact the team.