At LSC, we know how important it is to source local subcontractors. This is one of the key deliverables of our innovative platform, which has grown into a trusted Supply Chain Management resource for more than 50,000 active users, managing over £3 billion in projects and procurements.
It’s always been our priority to simplify supply chain management while creating powerful connections that drive success across the industry – and we’re delighted that LSC is currently used by many major contractors to manage their ENTIRE supply chain and associated processes across the UK and throughout their organisations.
How LSC works
The ‘local’ element of LSC helps organisations source, manage and engage higher levels of subcontractors within the vicinity of their projects all over the UK.
This is made easier by the platform’s suite of intuitive tools that help organisations meet, exceed and evidence local spend KPIs. The functionality available through these in-built tools, allows major contractors to demonstrate their ability to efficiently engage local SMEs on a project-by-project basis.
In addition to sourcing local contractors, the platform enables access to a database of UK-wide subcontractors, should estimators and commercial teams wish to engage contractors on a wider basis (outside the project area) – something we’ve found crucial, particularly when speciality trades are required.
Although our name suggests an emphasis on local networks of subcontractors, Local Supply Chain can and does manage national supply chains for many of our clients.
Easy Access to a National Database
Within LSC, our customers have access to over 35,000 organisations. There are various search functions and filters to help buyers carve out a supply chain most relevant to those they are looking to engage.
These include the typical filters you would expect to see such as location and distance from project location, Health & Safety accreditations, trades or services, etc, down to more granular information including financial records, trade-specific documentation and insurances.
Curating your own Supply Chain
LSC simplifies the categorising of customers’ supply chains using our ‘label’ tool. Members can create their own labels such as Approved, Strategic Partner, Specialised and apply one or more to the subcontractors within their own supply chain.
You can also apply rules to labels such as expiry dates, as a subcontractor may only be approved for one or two years before they need a review. It’s a way of ensuring all suppliers meet quality, safety and compliance standards prior to engagement.
Our labels can also restrict who teams can award work to, for example, enquiry only, providing a level of governance and a strong link between your supply chain managers and commercial teams.
Comprehensive Subcontractor profiles
Every subcontractor registering on LSC can complete a profile. When engaging organisations for your projects and procurements, LSC automatically captures and provides extensive reports on this information including company turnover, number of employees, number of apprentices, types of organisation (SMEs, social enterprise, microbusiness, etc), office locations (using the nearest for local spend calculations) and types of services offered.
Organisations can upload important compliance certifications and information, which may include PAS91/CAS certifications and third-party accreditation assessments.
Evaluate Engagement statistics
The more your organisation uses LSC, the more the system will learn about how you engage with your supply chain and vice versa.
As an example, using the Tender Management module, LSC will automatically capture invite to tender rates, open rates, document downloads and response rates across Expressions of Interest and Invites to Tender at tender and contract stage of each project.
Monitor Awards & Feedback
LSC captures the number, value and percentages of awards in relation to tenders issued to each subcontractor. This helps us identify any subcontractors our clients may be close to overloading and highlight any that are engaging well with each organisation.
Following an award, it’s very quick and easy to provide feedback on lost tenders to unsuccessful subcontractors. This is a huge hit for the subcontractors using LSC and something our clients see as a robust advantage over their competitors when it comes to two-way engagement with their supply chains.
Track Performance
We have a fully inbuilt and flexible performance module with templates that can be tailored to your organisation. Performance reviews can be scheduled, automatically issued, assigned and re-assigned and have low score warnings which will trigger e-mails to relevant individuals across your business.
This provides, in real-time, a complete oversight of how well your supply chain is performing overall, as individual subcontractors, on projects and even for entire frameworks.
So you’ve seen just a few of LSC’s key features and how embedding supply chain management into procurement processes through cloud-based technology is ensuring our clients stay one step ahead of their competition. And with stricter environmental regulations and corporate social responsibility commitments, integrating sustainable practices has now become even more important. (Danny, our COO, is quite passionate about this topic).
To summarise, building a resilient and futureproof supply chain relies on careful coordination, collaboration and commitment to maintaining quality in order to deliver the best outcomes, stay on budget and hit deadlines. Our technology helps make this happen.
Find out more by contacting us to schedule a FREE demo of LSC and its wider capabilities.