The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council has partnered with NVISION to offer a virtual audit of where and how the marketing supply chain can be streamlined to reduce waste and optimize spend. The interactive web-based tool is designed to provide marketers with a basic understanding of the state of the supply chain operations of marketing, plotting where an organization stands compared to industry standards and leading practices of a fully optimized marketing supply chain operational process.

Seventy-five percent of marketers surveyed in the CMO Council's "Define Where to Streamline" study indicated that they had not mapped or audited their own organization's supply chain, but felt that optimized operations would improve go-to-market effectiveness, reduce costs and free budgets that could be redeployed in demand generating programs. To answer this need for auditing, the CMO Council teamed with NVISION, which has established a comprehensive Marketing Supply Chain audit called NDEPTH, along with a series of industry standards and leading practices based on over 90 years of supply chain management.

"It is usually those unknown, hidden or legacy processes that create the greatest drain on budget and most severe impact on efficiency, which is why undergoing a comprehensive audit of the marketing supply chain is so critical," stated Mike Perez, vice president of marketing and business development for NVISION. "These initial questions and directions are just an informal introduction of where and how marketing supply chain management and operational optimization could impact your business."

On average, an organization can expect to save 20 to 30 percent by streamlining marketing supply chain operations and establishing customer experience enhancing processes and technology solutions that provide visibility and accountability. For example, according to NVISION's leading practices, the rate of obsolescence, or the percentage of on-hand materials or marketing consumables that are either under-utilized, out of date or no longer circulated, should be no higher than eight percent in an optimized marketing supply chain.

Yet, in the CMO Council's "More Haste to Reduce Waste" audit, 58 percent of marketers estimate that their rate of obsolescence is between 10 and 30 percent. Diminishing obsolescence to meet the leading practice rate of 8 percent could potentially save companies between 1 percent and 10 percent of overall budget.

"The results and recommendations in this assessment are not the end solution, but rather a starting point to help marketers justify the investigation and attention needed to optimize the marketing supply chain," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "The layers of marketing operational complexity have made it difficult for marketing leaders to make supply chain management a priority. They are looking for real numbers to justify why this should take priority over other critical mandates. The CMO Council and NVISION have worked to provide an introduction of where and how, in real dollars and quantifiable percentages, the operational processes and practices in dealing with marketing consumables and managing the Marketing Supply Chain impact the budget and business."

Source: CMO Council