In this week’s “Supplier Diversity Practitioner Series” webcast, we focused on the topic of “The Importance of Data.” I’d like to take this opportunity to share some of our key findings from this webcast.

According to a Forrester Research report, “Supplier Performance Trends 2010-2011,” data quality is often cited as the number one challenge facing today’s supplier managers. This data includes general company information, ownership/parent-child hierarchy, and compliance and credit risk.

According to a May 17 article in LogisticsToday, “Most Supplier Diversity Programs Fail to Deliver,” a recent survey of nearly 40 Global 1000 companies by The Hackett Group has found that, while companies with world-class procurement organizations tend to diversify their supplier spend more successfully than others, this doesn’t mean that their supplier diversity programs are successful. They use overly simplistic metrics to assess diversity programs that might, for example, be too diversified to meet their supplier procurement needs and corporate goals.