Think digital transformation includes SRM?  Absolutely right it does. With 80% of companies’ revenue generated outside their borders by their suppliers how could it not.

Digital transformation without Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is an incomplete strategy – one that leaves critical value trapped outside the organisation’s walls. In a landscape where over 80% of enterprise revenue now flows through external suppliers, neglecting SRM isn’t just an oversight – it’s a fundamental risk to competitiveness and resilience.

AI Won’t Save a Broken Supply Chain Without SRM

The global supply chain has evolved into a complex, data-rich, and risk-prone ecosystem. Yet, many organisations still manage supplier relationships with outdated tools and fragmented systems. This oversight is costly: up to one-third of negotiated supplier value is lost over time due to poor relationship management and data silos. ​

States KPMG, the urgency to modernize SRM is underscored by the fact that 50% of supply chain organisations are investing in AI and advanced analytics to enhance operations. However, technology alone isn’t the panacea. Without a strategic focus on supplier relationships, these investments risk becoming disjointed efforts that fail to deliver holistic value.​

Turning Supplier Relationships Into Strategic Assets

Suppeco is reshaping the way organisations engage with their suppliers through its innovative ‘digital relationship layer.’ Historically, supplier relationships have been treated as a subjective, soft-skill domain – often marginalised in favour of traditional category management’s focus on cost and contracts. Suppeco changes that by introducing objectivity into an area once dominated by anecdote and intuition. By creating a live, dynamic narrative of supplier engagement, Suppeco transforms relationship management into a measurable, actionable asset – elevating it from the periphery to the core of strategic procurement and digital transformation.

Digital transformation efforts often focus on systems, platforms, and workflows – but they overlook the reality that c90% of enterprise data is unstructured and operational. Stakeholder data, email traffic, documents, collaborative chat and call notation, service reports – these aren’t peripheral noise; they are the operational lifeblood of supplier relationships. Traditional SRM approaches, rooted in rigid templates and retrospective reviews, are simply not equipped to capture this dynamic flow of information.

Real-Time Intelligence: Suppeco’s Generative-SRM

Suppeco is changing the game by applying domain-specific-generative-AI to this unstructured ecosystem. Its digital relationship layer captures live, organic interactions between buyers and suppliers, turning subjective and previously invisible engagement into objective, real-time intelligence. This transforms relationship management from a vague, marginalised activity into a measurable, strategic discipline – critical for operational resilience, innovation, and sustainable growth. Today, where external suppliers underpin over 80% of enterprise revenue, that capability is not optional. It’s a competitive necessity.

Fortunately, the shift towards deeper supplier collaboration is evident. A 2025 Veridion study showed that over 75% of procurement leaders are prioritising closer relationships. This trend reflects a broader recognition that strategic supplier partnerships are critical for navigating disruptions and driving growth.​

Protecting Margins Through Supplier Intelligence

Poor visibility into supplier performance is still a critical weakness: 43% of organisations admit they cannot fully monitor their tier-one suppliers, according to KPMG. The impact is far-reaching – without clarity, businesses miscalculate total landed cost (TLC), often missing hidden expenses like tariffs, freight surcharges, and compliance penalties. These blind spots undermine profitability and resilience at exactly the moment supply chain risks are multiplying. Suppeco directly tackles this failure by delivering live, actionable insights across supplier ecosystems, converting previously opaque data into operational intelligence. By illuminating both hard metrics and the softer relationship dynamics, Suppeco gives businesses the tools to drive agility, protect margins, and build true value into their supply chains.

Digital Transformation Without SRM Is Already Obsolete

Any digital transformation strategy that fails to embed Supplier Relationship Management isn’t just incomplete – it’s obsolete. In a world where supplier ecosystems drive most enterprise value, organisations that don’t put relationships at the centre of their digital future will fall behind – operationally, commercially, and competitively.