New York—June 5, 2014—Procurement and supply management professionals working toward achieving diversity targets no longer have to consult multiple resources to find qualified companies. With ThomasNet.com’s new Supplier Diversity Application, they can now turn to one free central source. The product sourcing and supplier discovery platform offers one of the largest databases of woman-owned, minority, disadvantaged and small businesses, including their certificates, saving buyers valuable time in creating shortlists for their direct and indirect spends.
Seventy-two percent of buyers recently surveyed by CAPS, a research arm of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), said they would be increasing their spending with diverse suppliers. But putting their plans into action wasn’t going to be easy. In a separate ISM survey, 72 percent of respondents agreed finding diverse suppliers was their number one hurdle.
“Research is showing a clear demand among government and Fortune 1000 buyers for help advancing their diversity programs. We’re responding through this expansion of our content and functionality. This furthers our goal of helping buyers identify the suppliers that meet their exact needs, whether for a particular product or service, diversity certification or both,” said Tom Greco, vice president, ThomasNet.com.
In addition to providing suppliers’ current and historical certifications, making their certificates available for download and linking to other proof of ownership, ThomasNet.com’s in-depth, multi-page profiles offer buyers a complete look at their full suite of competencies. Detailed information includes product and capability catalogs, quality certifications, locations, key contacts, year established, brands distributed or manufactured, financial information, news and more.
The new application leverages the free productivity tools offered throughout the platform, allowing buyers to save profiles, create and export supplier shortlists, and send requests for information (RFI).
The Supplier Diversity application is one of six applications available on ThomasNet.com, which recently relaunched with advanced functionality. Each month, nearly 2 million buyers and engineers use ThomasNet.com for sourcing original equipment manufacturer (OEM), maintenance, repair and operations (MRO), and other products and services. The hallmark of the platform is its Supplier Discovery Application with over 700,000 commercial and industrial suppliers discoverable by over 70,000 product and service categories, UNSPCS commodity codes, brands carried and company names.
