According to McKinsey, high-quality, focused interaction can enhance productivity and agility in any organization, driving better business performance. As a result, B2B businesses increasingly turn to technology to achieve this goal.
But, in an evolving space like rebate management, most technology implementations stop with facilitating interactions, not enabling collaboration. Capabilities like cloud adoption, virtual meetings, and instant-group messaging help improve communication, but the real value lies in converting such interactions into a meaningful partnership that benefits all stakeholders – buying groups, buyers, suppliers, and the business.
So, what’s the downside of your rebate management system operating in a silo? How can you identify the impact of these siloed processes and programs on your business? How can collaboration fuel your business and revenue growth? Let’s take a deep dive.
How to tell if your rebate management process is siloed
If you experience any of the following scenarios in your rebate management routine, a siloed approach, framework, or organizational structure is likely impeding your business.
- You are unable to access accurate real-time incentive program data.
- Your stakeholders complain of redundancy or non-availability of specific data at the decision-making point.
- You juggle multiple emails, spreadsheets, messages, and other sources to access relevant rebate information.
- Your deal negotiations are not smooth as both parties lack access to a single source of truth.
- Your conversations with your trading partners are characterized by friction and strife.
How do siloed operations impact your business?
According to a Gartner survey, data sharing is a business-facing KPI to achieve effective stakeholder engagement. The survey also shows that promoting data sharing and breaking down data silos was linked to high-performing Data and Analytics (D&A) teams that provide value to the organization.
Siloed rebate management practices hold your business back by:
Complicating data analytics
Siloed processes typically carry data in non-standard formats and structures, making it cumbersome to integrate and compile them into a single, ready-to-use, compatible format. The resource and time-intensive process involve data extraction from various sources, checking for redundancy, eliminating errors, and curating the large volume of available information. This further complicates rebate analytics and forecasts, delaying data utilization for business benefits.
Duplicating time and effort
As stakeholders do not have access to real-time data, they carry out their business predictions, negotiations, and pricing calculations based on their siloed and often outdated information. This results in conflicting inputs at the time of deal finalization, duplicating effort, causing frustration, and impacting stakeholder relationships.
Compromising data security
When stakeholders research, store, and share data at their individual locations and in their various systems, there is no overarching control over data handling practices, compromising data security. Data theft, duplication, or manhandling cannot be easily traced or identified as the end-to-end process is not streamlined.
Decelerating business growth
When processes and teams do not operate collaboratively, there are no clear answers to the ‘who, when, where, and what’ of data access. This causes individuals and teams to work with available information and be unaware if their data is accurate, valid, or genuine. The result: data gets quickly outdated, hampering your decision-making agility and hindering the rapid growth your organization strives for.
How can collaborative rebate management boost efficiency?
According to a McKinsey survey of over 100 organizations from various sectors, companies that collaborated with suppliers on a regular basis experienced lower costs and increased growth and profitability.
A reliable, automated rebate management tool handles the end-to-end processes of rebate management with agility and accuracy. It reduces ambiguity in rebate programs and earnings and serves as an equal opportunity provider for all members of the rebate ecosystem.
Some significant benefits of adopting collaborative rebate management include:
Facilitating business growth
When your business goals align with your stakeholders, your rebate schemes can drive the expected behavior from your trading partners. This means you can seamlessly tap into business opportunities, power mutual growth, and reach revenue targets.
Optimizing cost
Collaboration reduces communication errors, eliminates data redundancy, and ensures prompt information exchange. Streamlined operations cut down expenses due to supply delays, conflicting contract terms, inaccurate inventory, missed shipments, and misleading product information.
Improving efficiency and building trust and loyalty
When distributors, suppliers, and group members work with a single source of truth, the entire rebate management process becomes more efficient and accurate. It enables all stakeholders to review deals, track payments, and monitor programs and procedures in a single pane view. This capability improves transparency and visibility, winning the trust of all members involved.
Harmonizing partner relationships
Working together on a common platform creates in-depth awareness of your trading partners’ requirements, preferences, and business goals. These deep, long-term relationships enable you to strike mutually rewarding deals with minimal disagreements. It also prevents minor issues from escalating into major roadblocks.
Building the rebate management landscape of tomorrow
Collaboration is not just about improving your rebate earnings and retaining your business partners. It is the key to shaping your rebate ecosystem to offer substantial revenue and business growth for everyone involved. Tredence’s Rebate.ai does precisely that for your business.
Our intelligent rebate management platform is your key to boosting rebate revenue and business collaboration. Partner with us to understand the intricacies of rebate management and amplify your rebate handling capability.
