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Honey, we kill bureaucracy: how digitalization is changing the dialogue between suppliers and X5

When you have 5 thousand suppliers, a huge document flow and business across the country, the usual data collection scheme takes up valuable time. Time is money, as you know, so in X5 we constantly think about how to optimize the process of exchanging master data with suppliers, and have already achieved a good result. Last time we talked about how we optimized product listing by adding another unit to the chain. Today we will talk about the new portal for suppliers and why we see the future behind this.



Today, all companies go online. More and more customers are choosing products on the electronic shelf and using a mobile device or desktop to get information about the product. The quality and trust in this information on the part of the client is a point of competition with other players in the market.

Platforms for storing data in the X5 were before. They were slightly different and did not meet the required parameters. The MDM system was chosen because it is architecturally convenient for both support and users. In this system, in addition to storing and entering data, there is nothing: no reports, no sales, no shipments, no assortments. This is a top-level, architecturally comfortable environment in which we maintain data in those perspectives in which we are comfortable.

By creating a portal for suppliers, we provide our partners with a convenient process for exchanging master data. The process where the input and quality control of data is performed by the supplier on the portal itself. Our goal is to abolish paper media as a phenomenon and strive to ensure that the supplier passes all checks on the portal. As a result, already high-quality and verified data comes to X5, and the category manager just needs to decide whether he is interested in this product or not. Based on experience with Mars, both parties came to the conclusion that the Portal we offer significantly speeds up the process of introducing a new assortment.



Previously, the supplier transmitted product information to the category manager in electronic or printed form. Data was transferred to the internal MDM system manually.
For example: to make adjustments to change the packaging of goods, the supplier had to write a letter to the commercial department, then the request was transmitted to the internal departments of the company for processing and making changes.
“This was a huge bureaucratic chain, and the supplier, meanwhile, was thinking: who should I tell me that my shelf life has changed by one day?” Said Natalya Goncharova, head of the master data department for the X5 Retail Group products.

Now the supplier, entering the portal, can enter all the data in electronic form, track the status in your account, submit information about new products, make adjustments to existing products.

The supplier can also use the services for digitizing master data by one of the content service providers:

  • LLC Diskom
  • Corus Consulting CIS LLC
  • BrandKvad LLC



What have we achieved? The main result - the data processing process was reduced by three days. Feedback from suppliers shows the Portal's interest, many are already "ordering new features and buttons." We continue to develop the Portal, taking into account the opinions and requests of suppliers, especially regarding additional checks on the correctness of the entered data.



It happens that master data intersects and diverges inside the company's IP systems, maintaining part of the data is duplicated by business units - in this case there is confusion, which is difficult to eliminate. Rechecking takes time and harnesses all bureaucratic potential. At X5, we strive to create and maintain a “golden record of goods”. This is primarily a set of business critical attributes whose correctness affects the logistics and sales processes. Our activity is aimed at ensuring that goods have a single source of truth about them, because if this is not so, then this is a problem.
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