Introducing Vendor Supplier Management Solutions: Making Source-To-Pay Easier
Vendor Supplier Management
No matter the size of your business, managing vendors and suppliers is crucial activity. As such, if you’re finance executive looking for source-to-pay solution, vendor supplier management (VMS) solution is likely the right approach. This article serves as an introduction to VMS and set of instructions on how to use such solution.
What is Vendor Supplier Management?
Vendor supplier management (VMS) is the procurement strategy which combines different approaches and tools to manage vendors and suppliers. VMS solution can help an enterprise to track, manage and analyze data and performance that is associated with vendor/supplier contracts and engagements. Whether it is single contract or scope of work that incorporates multiple contracts and supplier relationships, VMS solution can provide single source of truth for companies looking to leverage their relationships with vendors and suppliers.
How Does Vendor Supplier Management Work?
A VMS solution typically provides comprehensive and user-friendly suite of tools to aid in vendor contract and supplier management. Some of the core features are:
? Automated Compliance Checks: Automatically check vendors against internal requirements to ensure that they meet corporate standards and comply with corporate policies.
? Spend Analytics: Gather visibility into your spend and performance information from vendor contracts.
? Contract Authoring Negotiations: Create contracts, easily negotiate terms and obtain pricing information.
? Real-Time Tracking: Track real-time data on all contracts and service orders.
? Supplier Assessment onboarding: Quickly assess suppliers and onboard new ones.
? Automated Reporting: Generate deliverable-based reports and financial KPIs.
? Invoice and Payment Processing: Automate invoice approval, payment processing and ensure that payments are made to vendors and suppliers on-time.
? Smooth Integrations: Integrate with other systems and people in order to provide seamless experience.
By leveraging these features, an enterprise is able to work more efficiently, reduce process time, and ensure compliance.
Benefits of Vendor Supplier Management
Using VMS solution can enable an enterprise to reduce costs, maximize buying power and gain more control over their supplier relationships. The key benefits of VMS solutions include:
? Improved Efficiency: Automated processes enable organizations to maximize the bottom line and improve process efficiency. VMS solutions can provide stakeholders with end-to-end control of their supply chain.
? Increased Compliance: Automated compliance checks enable enterprises to ensure that suppliers meet internal corporate requirements and are compliant with current standards and policies.
? Enhanced Performance: Spend analytics can provide insights into the quality and cost of services associated with vendors and suppliers. This enables organizations to improve vendor performance and quickly identify areas of improvement.
? Reduced Risk Errors: Automated tracking and reporting help to minimize errors and reduce risks associated with contracts and service orders.
? Improved Visibility: Automated reporting and real-time tracking provide business with the visibility they need in order to understand how their supplier relationships are performing.
If implemented properly, Vendor Supplier Management solution can offer business tremendous value and provide the visibility and control they need to properly manage supplier relationships and maximize their buying power.
Step-By-Step Guide on How to Use Vendor Supplier Management Solution
1. Evaluate Your Needs: The first step is to assess and evaluate your current needs. What level of vendor and supplier management do you need? What processes would you like to automate? What KPIs do you need to track? Answering these questions will help you to determine which solutions are best suited for your company and provide you with clear understanding of the scope of work.
2. Research Potential Solutions Take some time to research different vendor supplier management solutions and choose one that meets your requirements. Take note of the features and capabilities that the solution offers and compare them with your needs. Make sure that the solution is simple to use and offers smooth integration with other systems.
3. Set up Your VMS Solution: Once you’ve selected VMS solution, it is time to set it up. With the help of the vendor, set up all the necessary accounts, configure the platform and perform the necessary testing. Make sure that all stakeholders are properly trained on how to use the system.
4. Automate Compliance Checks: VMS solution should come equipped with automated compliance checks. This way, you can ensure that your vendors and suppliers are meeting internal corporate standards and complying with current standards and policies.
5. Spend Analytics: VMS solutions should also provide you with spend analytics that enable you to extract performance data from vendor contracts and service orders. This can provide you with the insight needed to monitor vendor performance, identify areas of improvements, and gain more control over your supplier relationships.
6. Contract authoring Negotiations: VMS solutions should provide users with the tools needed to easily author and negotiate contracts. This will help to reduce processing time and make it easier to obtain pricing information from vendors and suppliers.
7. Track Service Orders Invoices: VMS solution should be able to track service orders and invoices in real-time and provide automated reporting to ensure that payments are made on-time. This can help to reduce errors and improve financial tracking.
8. Supplier Assessment Onboarding VMS Solutions should also come with supplier assessment and onboarding tools. This will help to quickly assess new suppliers and onboard them without delay.
9. Integrations Continuous Optimization: Lastly, VMS solutions should provide users with the ability to integrate with other systems and people to provide seamless experience. Also, monitor your system continuously to ensure that it is meeting your needs and that it is being updated with the latest features and capabilities.
By following these steps, you can easily get started with vendor supplier management solution. If implemented properly, VMS solution can provide enterprises with the visibility and control they need to maximize their buying power and reduce costs.
