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Just as it necessary to have good customers, it is also necessary to have good suppliers. It is normal for companies not only to capitalise information with their suppliers, but also to exploit it with the appropriate tools... which brought about the birth of SRM in 2000.
Today, offer is divided into an integrated module (module SRM) or into a whole line of products (supplier portal) which groups together more functionalities.
The objective of CRM is to increase turnover by increasing sales in volume and/or in value.
It is easy to find practices whose intention it is to create customer loyalty and thus an increase in the customer value. Conversely, with SRM the company is itself the client, and it seeks to make savings in its transactions with its suppliers. This calls for an optimum relationship with the suppliers, and for the techniques which enable them to handpicked.

CRM for the customer, SRM for the supplier and SCM to organise information flow and physical flow between the two. The classic functions of SRM are:
  follow up of all communication with the supplier (orders, payment...),
  qualification of visit
  management of events with the supplier (delays, quality...)

What are the differences to e-procurement?
  e-procurement is the “internet window” of SRM. It’s an operational realisation of decisions taken using SRM, via internet, SRM information is more strategic :
  supplier file,
  contracts,
  quality analysis/supplier logistics,
  the belonging of a supplier to a certain group,
  What is the turnover with each particular supplier?

In broad outline, all of the confidential information a company has of its supplier is filed in the SRM and the decisions which result from the process of using SRM, are transformed via the internet to carry out operational orders, such as:
  purchases (sending of the order to the supplier),
  inverted bidding in real time,
  putting specifications on-line,
  on line catalogue updating
  transmission of data to certain suppliers (forecast of orders etc).

The “e-procurement portal” withstands all of the Purchasing process from the research for suppliers right through to payment. SRM has three advantages:
  to capitalise and transmit information,
  to automate transactions and
  the analytical aspect enabling decision taking.

The biggest asset of SRM is found in the handling of relationships with suppliers, in order to negotiate better and eventually (or of course, when the company enters into a “just-in-time-production), to reduce the supplier referencing.
What would initiate an SRM project?
To answer to the following questions :
  Where are our suppliers ?
  Who buys what?
  How do we divide our suppliers/products into segments?
  How do we consolidate our group purchases?
  Who are our good suppliers in terms of service?

It must be noted that SRM appeared on the market only five years ago and not all the needs have been modelled. Nevertheless, the capitalised data enables the efficient piloting of the supplier panel and to prepare a purchasing policy adapted to the strategic needs of the company.
SRM and e-procurement make the ideal couple. One capitalises the information and enables rigorous processing with a large added value because this is an application of a purchasing strategy, whereas the other is the Internet operational part which enables you to:
  manage catalogues,
  circulate the specifications,
  circulate the marking and progress of the supplier in order to establish a partnership and a relationship of trust,
  circulate the order forecasts (to the A class suppliers),
  give an international view of the information concerning the suppliers (belonging to groups, membership, mergers, competitors, life expectancy, tension on materials...)
  create and manage inverse bids,
  make a purchasing order
  measure the success of the purchasing policy,
  measure the reactivity and compliance of the implementation of purchasing directives...