While vendor onboarding is an important step that every business should take to ensure efficiency in their procurement process, best practices should be observed to make the process a success. Vendor Onboarding involves familiarizing the suppliers with the company's purchasing process. This includes uploading the vendors' data and information into the company's system to enable easy purchasing of goods and services including payment via e-invoicing, e-procurement, and supplier catalog. Some of the best practices include:
Reduce fraud and risk by prequalifying suppliers. You can do this during onboarding by using standardized workflows and checklists. You can embed supplier risk questionnaires in the approval process and configure questions in relations to industry standards, products or services and company requirements. Areas you can address include safety, insurance, financial and legal information.
Communication. When the business decides to implement vendor onboarding, it should communicate that to all stakeholders. The first to know should be the employees dealing with process then the suppliers. They should be given information about the program, timelines, goals and its benefits. This way, the employees can relay this to the vendors.
Be proactive. In some cases, the suppliers may not be as enthusiastic about the onboarding as the business. That means motivating the suppliers to go along with the process by informing them about the benefits. This way, they will not be hesitant to the onboarding process.
Make the vendor onboarding a priority. By prioritizing the process, the business ensures that the suppliers are onboard at the stipulated time. This can be done using campaigns to ensure maximum participation. Vendors can be categorized into groups, and their involvement tracked.
Allow the vendor to use a self-service portal. Allowing the suppliers to upload the relevant documents can fasten the onboarding process and reduce manual tasks associated with collecting, reviewing and approving them. For it to be successful, you should ensure that your supplier portal can be configured and connected to various supplier onboarding workflow, campaign management tools, and email. This will ensure good communication and positive vendor experience.
Have a simple registration process. You should make sure that the onboarding registration process is simple and not complicated to keep the suppliers motivated in the process. Ensure you collect all the information you need without overloading the vendors with too many forms to fill and too many questions. However, make sure that the information you receive is validated, complete and relevant information.
Train your employees and suppliers. One of the hindrances to successful supplier onboarding is the lack of know how. Training will make the users confident, and it will increase participation. Your supplier onboarding provider should provide online files, FAQ, video tutorials and knowledge bases.