With the introduction of the ARAIA Supply Management Circle (SMC) ARAIA provides a special type of service: members receive continuous consulting and are thereby supported in implementing best practice in Supply Management.

There is a permanent exchange between ARAIA and the SMC members. More efficiency is achieved by the continuous promotion of optimized solutions. A major advantage of the SMC membership is the privileged access to the expertise and network of ARAIA:

• contingent of consulting days by ARAIA Consultants;
• reduced daily rates for ARAIA consulting services;
• participation in ARAIA conferences;
• access to ARAIA studies and data bases;
• regular events on Supply Management.

The contingent of consulting days includes 10 man-days per year. The SMC consulting competence can be applied for example for the preparation of the company’s in-house or other purchasing relevant events. In addition the ARAIA experts offer support in the development of purchasing strategies, optimisation of the purchasing organisation or the purchasing controlling as well as in the field of Supplier Relation Management.

Furthermore, ARAIA’s SMC members profit from a 5% discount on the daily rates in effect. Another benefit for SMC members is the opportunity to join ARAIA trainings such as internal and external seminars, in which senior management coaching is held by ARAIA’s partners and principals amongst others.

A conference taking place on an annual basis provides the opportunity to exchange and discuss about company practice to all participants coming from management practice, research and management consultancy. The event includes activities, such as workshops, panel discussions, and presentations.

The last ARAIA conference titled „Global Sourcing – Eldorado or Fata Morgana?“ took place on the 24th and 25th of January 2007 in the Mandarin Oriental in Munich. The speakers of this event were known academic or business experts.

Moreover, SMC members have privileged access to ARAIA’s research and data bases as well as to the Supply Management online platform providing a great variety of specialised information:

• selected ARAIA publications in specialised magazines;
• ARAIA country profiles (e.g. Poland, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Singapore) with procurement relevant information;
• ARAIA commodity fact books for selected commodities;
• ARAIA studies with the latest trends in the field of supply management. The most recent empirical study „Supplier Support in Relationships between Purchasers and Suppliers“ was conducted together with the University of Cologne. SMC members had access to the study prior to its publication.

Each client of ARAIA is welcome to join the ARAIA Supply Management Circle.