About Third-Party Integration for SRM

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) integration with third-party service providers, such as IntegrityNext, is a strategic approach that enhances the capabilities of IFS Cloud. This integration streamlines the management of supplier interactions, ensuring that all supplier-related data is centralized and easily accessible. By leveraging the advanced features offered by external service providers such as IntegrityNext, companies can automate and optimize their supply chain sustainability efforts, ensuring compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.

Basic Data Setup

• To enable the third-party integration, the service provider, i.e. IntegrityNext should be linked to IFS connect via the API key in the Routing Rules and Routing Address setup. Refer to the Technical Documentation for detailed guidelines to configure this.
• Supplier ID at External Source should be manually inserted in the Supplier's SRM Info page to create the connection between the supplier and the external source. Supplier ID is the identification code assigned to individual suppliers when they are registered with the external source.
• Basic data set up should be configured to work with the external source in the Supplier Evaluation Parameters from External Sources page. By default, this is pre-configured to work with IntegrityNext. There are 31 system defined standard Term IDs that can be mapped to work with external sources. They are further grouped into 4 Assessment Types. ESG, ESG Environment, ESG -Social, ESG - Governance. Assessment type ESG is used for overall assessments that cannot be categorized into subcategories.
• Users can create new records in the Supplier Evaluation Parameters from External Sources page and configure them to work with different external sources. The Term IDs defined in this page will show up in the Supplier Evaluation KPIs page and can be used with KPIs with the Input Value Source set to External and Input Value Format set to Color.
• There are 31 System Defined KPIs created for each of the system defined Term IDs. The 3 Overall ESG KPIs have been used to form 3 System Defined KPI Groups (EXT GR ESG CAIR, EXT GR ESG ESGR, EXT GR ESG SUST). There are further 26 System Defined KPIs created for Social Media Monitoring & Critical News which have been used to form a separate System Defined KPI Group (EXT GR ESG SMCN).
• When manually creating KPIs for the purpose of externally sourcing evaluation values, use the combination of Input Value Source External and Input Value Format Color. Only KPIs with the source set as External can be assigned an External Term ID in the Supplier Evaluation KPIs page.
• When adding externally sourced KPIs to KPI Groups, two or more KPIs with the same External Term ID cannot be added to the same KPI group.
• Similarly, in Supplier Performance Evaluation Setup, two or more KPI Groups containing the same External Term ID and Input Value Format combination cannot be added to the same Setup.

Features

• A new group Sustainability Metrics has been introduced in the Suppliers' SRM Info page to expand upon the existing functionality. The Ratings and Evaluations tab is now entirely dedicated to showcase suppliers' evaluation results and rating info including the sustainability aspects. Once the supplier is connected to the external source by inserting the Supplier ID at External Source, users can use the Update Sustainability Links command to update the web URLs for the Sustainability Profile and the Critical News Profile of the supplier.
• Separate progress bars have been included to showcase the scores for Country & Industry Risk, ESG Risk, Assessment Results. There is also a counter to show the number of Critical News for the supplier. This is configured to support the information presentation of IntegrityNext. These values will be updated when an evaluation containing relevant KPI Groups is published and used as the Basis for General Rating.
• A new lobby page Supplier Sustainability Ratings has been introduced to showcase the results of the published evaluations categorized into the Overall Sustainability Risk and the 3 ESG verticals. Also showcased here is the Social Media Monitoring & Critical News risk information.
• Users can assign an Assessment Type to regular KPIs along with the appropriate Input Value Format (Color/ Numeric for Critical News KPIs) to integrate them into sustainability evaluations and to the Supplier Sustainability Ratings lobby page. Assessment Type is only applicable to sustainability-related KPIs and can be assigned as one of the following: ESG, ESG - Environment, ESG - Social, or ESG - Governance.