Until recently, Supplier Performance Management (SPM) had been notably missing from the array of technology solutions being developed for the procurement, sourcing and supply chain management functions.

Today, increasingly sophisticated and easy-to-use tools for building, automating, executing and expanding SPM systems are available, but the onus still falls to procurement and supply chain professionals to create effective metrics and processes for driving supplier performance in the directions they need it to move.

And, while the prospect of designing effective metrics for supplier performance and processes can seem daunting at first, it becomes less so when one begins to understand there is a -cycle to supplier performance management. Nothing is etched in stone.

Supplier Performance Metrics and improvement targets can—and should—change over time. The only irrevocable mistake is failing to measure and manage supplier performance at all.