From my conversation with Roland Seckler of Ypsomed and Paul Grandy of Sphera. Read the full case study →
I asked Roland what happens when an alert comes in. He told me about a fire in Basel, a city in Switzerland. Here’s how it went.
One alert, start to finish
The news breaks. A huge fire broke out in Basel, close to one of Ypsomed’s suppliers. It was reported on the news, on radio and on TV.
Five minutes later. Ypsomed got an email alert from Sphera. Roland remembers it saying: “Hey, there is a huge fire very close to your supplier. Please check if your supply chain will be interrupted.”
The alert goes to its owner. It went to the strategic purchaser responsible for that supplier.
The owner checks the impact. That purchaser looked at what had happened and whether it would hit Ypsomed’s supply.
Before an alert like this goes out, Sphera matches the event to the supplier’s address. Its analysts check priority alerts before they’re sent. I cover how that works in ‘How Sphera turns 500,000 news sources into one supplier alert.’
Who sees what
Roland says one part of the setup deserves more attention: alert monitoring. Nobody at Ypsomed has to open the software every day to look for trouble, because the alerts come to them.
“In the morning you check your inbox, and if there is nothing new inside of alerts, then your supplier network seems to be peaceful,” he says.
Paul says this works because different people need varying amounts of detail:
People who live in the platform. They dig into the sources, respond through Sphera’s response center and write summaries for reports.
Everyone else. They get summaries in their inbox, as often or as rarely as their role needs.
That also helps when people leave. Paul says staff change and move on. Because only a few users need the platform, the process keeps running without retraining everyone.
Three things to set before you switch alerts on
Ypsomed’s setup comes down to three decisions you can make on day one:
An owner for every critical supplier. At Ypsomed, the alert goes straight to the strategic purchaser who manages that supplier.
Who works in the tool, and who reads the inbox. Keep the first group small and train it well.
How often each person hears. A buyer may want every alert. A plant manager may only want a weekly summary.
My notes
I’d test the owner list before the first real alert. Pick one critical supplier, send a mock alert and see who picks it up and how long the check takes.
More from this conversation:
