What is a Vendor Self-Service Portal? - Definition
A vendor self-service portal, also commonly known as a supplier self-service portal, is an integrated online platform shared by vendors and businesses. The vendor self-service portal is used for entering supplier information, submitting documents, displaying status, and communicating.
With a Vendor portal, submitting documents like electronic purchase orders, contracts, and vendor invoices for payment is more accessible. It also reduces the costs of procurement cycles by improving the exchange of business documents and shortening the time it takes to process the content of these documents.
Challenges in The Existing Process
Business interactions with suppliers can be time-consuming, expensive, and frustrating. For example, studies show that a typical enterprise will commit 15 - 20 percent of its AP team to answer calls involving common questions from suppliers like: Do you have my invoice in the system? When are you going to pay? For which invoice have I received the check?
The Benefit of Vendor Self-Service Portals
Organizations can solve this problem by empowering vendors and suppliers with a self-service portal to streamline communication and collaboration with their vendor and supplier network and eliminate data entry on the buyer's end.
Vendor portals can eliminate paper for better environmental sustainability, dramatically reduce data entry errors, and provide additional services that reduce the dependencies and resource drain on accounts payable staff. The additional services/utility provided are listed below:
- Increase compliance with your Vendor onboarding procedures.
- Capture an increased percentage of early payment discounts.
- Reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions or supplier fraud.
- Improve supplier satisfaction around the globe.
- Reduce cost per supplier, per invoice, and per inquiry.
- Enhance supplier satisfaction.
Selecting The Most Suitable Vendor Self-Service Portal For Your Business
By using a self-service portal, vendors can get answers to questions on their own, 24-hours, 365 days a year, without any intervention from your AP team. The best portal providers will also back their solutions with a global customer care center that supports you and your suppliers. When selecting a vendor self-service portal for your business, consider the functionality matching your business size, type, needs, and budget. The right supplier portal should increase efficiency to reduce operating costs. Finally, look for scalability that will let you keep the supplier portal functioning as your business grows.
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