Procurement Case Study – Supplier Chain Management Portal for leading UK Telecommunications Company

100% increase in website engagement in just one month, rising to 300%; and 60% decrease in procurement inefficiency.

The original Supplier Chain Management Portal

The Brief

The online supplier chain management portal was out-dated and no longer suitable for purpose for a leading telecommunications company. Potential suppliers bypassed it and found direct channels into procurement, which was inefficient and impractical.

‘The instructions are no good. I had to phone the helpdesk.’ – Existing Supplier

‘It looks like something from the 90s.’ – New Supplier

Supplier Assurance was a critical business priority for the client. The website did not enable Third Party Assurance objectives. Brand image to suppliers was behind competitors and not reflective of the company’s modern standards.
Aspirations for world-class procurement included the supplier interface and experience. It needed to convey strong, favourable impressions of the company and the procurement function.
But more importantly, the Supplier Chain Management Portal needed to be found in the SERPS. Without traffic the above work would be for nothing.

‘I don’t think the Selling2BT site has a lot of visibility.’ – Procurement Team Member

‘What is the Selling2BT site? I have spoken to our Sales Department and they’ve not heard of the site either.’ – Existing supplier

The Remit:

The procurement client requested a re-design and re-launch of the S2BT portal that represented a significant step forward from the then-current state. The SEO task was to incorporate revised keyword-rich and search engine optimised content and help to deliver a greatly improved supplier experience, which guided users through the on-boarding process through good website navigation functionality.

Supplier chain management competitor analysis

Competitor analysis:

Third-Party Supplier Portals: there were instances of no explanation that third parties were behind the supplier portal linked to the main website. This can become confusing and untrustworthy for a user, leading to abandonment.
Not all websites were responsive. The website should be set up for all devices so that anyone can access it.
The majority of the supplier websites didn’t have Search Engine Optimisation set up correctly. Online visibility needed to be given greater priority.
Strong backlink set up from a company’s main site can bring traffic to the supplier portal. The higher-ranking competitors had trusted links to their supplier portals.

Best practice and user feedback

Expert analysis carried out by ourselves and the development team was collated alongside research involving user interviews and remote card sorting via a Trello board.

Trello board used for remote card sorting research

Assumptions from insights were then validated with users and stakeholders:

The professional Search Engine Optimisation would give greater online visibility meaning more traffic and registering of new suppliers. Site-wide SEO would bring better navigation and enhanced legibility by dividing information into headers and sub-headers to easily locate all the information. Less drilling down.
A Frequently Asked Questions or Most Popular section would help answer generic queries.
Breadcrumb links would help users to navigate more efficiently, even prompting them to bookmark pages used regularly.
Backlinks from other BT online property would enhance user experience and visibility.
Content would need re-writing by content owners. (Subject matter experts able to assess what is overly complex or too wordy.) Writers to liaise with SEO professionals to create keyword-rich content.
Re-design of site navigation to be tested via heat mapping and A/B testing to be implemented if necessary.
Analytics to give feedback and validation.