What is Vendor Management Software?

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What is Vendor Management?

Vendor management is the process of onboarding new suppliers to a business. It encompasses all necessary steps to ensure a simple, secure, and easy transition. In addition, using vendor management software will help achieve seamless vendor onboarding and engagement with suppliers and help maintain relationships and accurate supplier data moving forward.

It will also help businesses stay ahead of compliance and risk management—for example, it can mitigate the risk of dealing with unaccredited suppliers.

A recent article in Business Insurance stated that managing vendors and third-party contractors are “a critical part of data regulation compliance.”

What Tasks Do Vendor Management Software Include?

Researching the marketplace for products and services
Vendor sourcing
Obtaining quotes
Contract negotiating
Managing relationships
Vendor performance
Making vendor payments
Resolving disputes

Features of Vendor Management Tools

With many Vendor Management tools on the market, it is worth researching to find out which solution is best for your business model. It will keep your organisation on top of supplier dealings.

Here are some of the critical tools Telic’s Vendor Management Software uses to keep things flexible for your business.

Onboarding—As mentioned, the tools will remove the initial pain of onboarding new suppliers. The automated tool enters their details from the start, does vendor checks, and ensures they are fully compliant, giving you, as a new customer/client, that peace of mind needed to progress.
Supplier portal – A bonus for the new supplier is having access to their portal to update their relevant information, services and compliance checks.
Tracking—The only way to fully maximise your current supplier contracts is to monitor their performance and service delivery.
Reporting compliance—Organisations in the financial services industry must adhere to stringent compliance regulations, so using a reliable vendor management solution is essential.

Benefits of Vendor Management Software

Businesses must implement a vendor management system to have transparent relationships and minimise disruption. As companies grow, the number of vendors may increase along with the complexity of the supply chain, so an effective management tool must be in place.

Overall, the benefits include:

Cost savings – Identifying risks and negotiating for renewals will control costs.

Eradicate time constraints – Automating vendor checks could save your business teams valuable time and effort wasted in conducting these checks manually.

Management overview—A complete view of all vendor data will ensure your business has the whole picture and can track any warning signs or when something needs an update or a deeper review.

Compliance—A management tool makes assessing compliance activity easy. It keeps up with the relevant industry standards and legislation and helps your company prove to stakeholders that it is being run in a compliant manner.

Risk assessment and management – The management tool is vital if your company needs to build new supplier relationships and new strategies for managing third-party risks.

Growth and innovation—If a business wants to expand or grow through acquisition, the vendor process must be simple, adaptable, and straightforward.