McElroyHUB: A New Era in Vendor Management
The Right Person for the Right Job at the Right Time
McElroy Translation pioneered vendor management many years ago. When Ralph McElroy founded the company in 1968, he established a culture in which translators and other vendors were considered critical for success. As a result, the company created translator friendly practices, such as regular payments (regardless of payment from the end-customer) and sophisticated task assignment processes that empowered our vendors and assured that they were part of our overall team.
Now McElroy is expanding its vendor management program with McElroyHUB. McElroyHUB uses best-of-breed technologies to ensure that we match the most qualified vendor to every job. The goal: the right person for the right job at the right time.
McElroyHUB addresses vendor management from many angles, including vendor qualification, task assignment, reporting, and enhanced vendor relationship maintenance.
Vendor Qualification
Vendor qualification ensures that the right person is assigned for each job. In this step, McElroyHUB invites vendors to fill out online profiles, indicating language and subject matter expertise. It also allows vendors to download tests and submit them for an initial qualification score. This score is used for the vendor’s early assignments, but it is updated by vendor management staff based on feedback from editors and clients.
In addition to the quality score, vendors are assigned an overall reliability score. This is a measure of the vendor’s track record in meeting accepted deadlines and allows us to choose the right vendor for quick turnaround projects.
McElroyHUB enhances the vendors’ scores in quality and reliability by maintaining an ongoing history of interaction with each vendor, which is used by the project manager when making task assignments.
Task Assignment
In addition to qualifying vendors, McElroyHUB tackles task assignment. One way it does that is by creating prequalified groups of translators based on scores and histories from the vendor qualification process. When a new task arrives, it can automatically be offered to the prequalified group. Because a group of vendors is able to respond at the same time for the job—as opposed to the previous method of going to one vendor at a time and waiting for a response—the job can be staffed much more quickly with a prequalified vendor.
Another way that McElroyHUB assigns tasks is by creating “buckets” of similar jobs and assigning a group of qualified translators to each “bucket.” When a job comes in, it is routed into the appropriate bucket, and the assigned translators know there will always be a steady stream of jobs available for them to accept. This simplifies the assignment process without sacrificing quality by having prequalified translators self-assign jobs.
Reporting
With vendors qualified and tasks assigned, McElroyHUB now provides better information for the project manager. Project managers have access to a number of dashboard-style reports that ensure all jobs are monitored carefully and clients are aware of progress.
Vendor Relationship maintenance
Maintaining long and loyal relationships with vendors doesn’t just help the vendor—it is a win-win for McElroy and McElroy’s clients. That is one reason why we have committed to prompt payment practices over the past forty years. McElroyHUB allows McElroy to expand its loyalty program with vendors by offering them a number of services:
• Online invoice submission and payment status
• Access to the buckets where there is always work available
• Collaborative translation/editing environments, training opportunities, resource sharing, and social networking
See McElroyHUB
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