Supplier Portal
A Supplier portal, or also known as a vendor portal, is an internet-based eProcurement solution that allows companies to manage and connect with 3rd party suppliers of goods and/or services.
Understanding Supplier Portal
A supplier portal is a security management system that helps businesses that network with many suppliers significantly streamline their procurement process online.
Supplier Portals are required for any company that works with multiple suppliers. It provides an easy and secure way for the business and its suppliers to track orders, raise concerns, communicate, and ensure that both parties are on the same page.
Suppliers usually register on the portal and can use it as a means to keep track of their business relationship, tracking what goods and services they have provided to the company, when, and in what quantity; while the company operating the portal can follow the same data across multiple suppliers; finding patterns and reducing redundancies in the supply chain. Learn more about our supplier collaboration portal.
Benefits of a Supplier Portal system
- Consolidate and standardize supplier information
Imagine having new, standardized supplier data to work with when preparing bidding opportunities or identifying potential suppliers. A supplier portal provides a single access point for current vendors to update their information and a means for new suppliers to register to participate in your program.
A customized form gives you control over what information is entered and how it is entered; populating a database, you can then search by commodity category, geographic location, size, and many other parameters.
- Prequalify candidates
Instead of spending your time combing through possibly outdated databases for the information needed to vet potential clients, automate the process through a supplier portal. Potential suppliers complete a customized RFI-styled questionnaire within the registration tool that serves as a prequalification sourcing survey when registering with your company. These surveys are scored and then routed to the appropriate buyer within your organization, saving everyone time and reducing workload.
- Tracking and reporting
A supplier portal allows you to track suppliers by commodity category and diversity category, providing a clear picture of your company's progress toward various internal goals. Customized reports based on the data available through your supplier portal keep you on track to meet spend targets and help identify potential risks such as overreliance on a single supplier.
- Reduce administrative workload
A supplier portal lets you automate many aspects of supplier management, drastically reducing your administrative workload. In addition to automating the supplier signup process and pre-qualifying potential suppliers, through a supplier portal, you can automatically receive & send notifications such as certification expirations, certificates of insurance, and code-of-conduct, and small-business affidavit collections.
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