SUMMARY
Merlin allows you to easily collect, aggregate and analyze performance data for your most critical suppliers. Combining best-in-class KPIs with an automated platform, Merlin ensures you minimize time on manual data aggregation and maximize time on more strategic activities. I am glad that I designed and build first 2 versions of this blockbuster product from scratch during my tenure with CEB now Gartner between 2011-2013, This service is still generating value and is featured on Gartner research page below.
https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3913612/merlin-automated-supplier-scorecard-platform-
Challenge
To build a customization tool and reporting platform with a choice of 25 pre-built scorecards and ability to create automated PowerPoint decks with unlimited number of slides and high degree of customization, These tools should help to:
1. Assess Suppliers:- Combining best-in-class KPIs with our automated platform, Merlin allows you to easily collect, aggregate, and analyze performance data for your most critical suppliers.
2. Focus on more Strategic Activities:- Procurement organizations with effective scorecard automation extract more innovative ideas from their supply base at a lower functional cost, freeing up staff time. This increased capacity creates time to focus on developing Continuous Improvement Plans for critical suppliers.
3. Standardize Supplier Relationship Management Program:- The use of automated scorecard tools enables you to standardize and scale the SRM program in an efficient fashion across the enterprise.
Idea and Solution
Merlin is an automated supplier scorecard platform allowing customizable inputs through Excel powered by dynamic XML code generation through VBA and API calls. Further, a framework was created to allow standardized layouts to showcase supplier assessment results in PowerPoints. An intelligent algorithm was created to process raw data from scratch, apply business logic, calculate variances from the benchmarks and automatically create unlimited number of decks and slides by smart batch creation of 500 slides per deck. This made the tool extremely flexible and capable to assess suppliers for big Enterprises to small and Medium sized companies.
Results
This end to end automation resulted in 20-30 client additions /renewal during 2013-2015 only. The cost for building such a platform was nothing in comparison to the revenue it generated. My efforts were recognized by CEB now Gartner through the Rising star award and cash incentive of 25,000 INR (~$500) together with a privilege to meet/greet with then CEO Tom Monahan during his visit to India in 2014.
Know more about this project here.
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