Bringing a new vendor or supplier on board can be a painstaking task for most organizations. But, it does not have to be so. By implementing a number of steps, you can attract more suppliers to participate in your vendor onboarding process. Here is a step-to-step guide to successful supplier onboarding:
Create a simplified and centralized submission process
It is important for the organization to come up with a submission process, which allows vendors to submit their requirements in a single place when using an interactive and easy to use method. This can enable you to centralize vendor information. Besides, it prevents loss of documents while preventing wastage of resources and time, which would be spent to sort out the information manually.
Assess vendor information timely
Next, you need to have an application or a system that can validate the supplier information in real time. It should enable you to enter data, modify and update the vendor information in a timely manner. It is also crucial for the system to determine if the contact details that have been submitted are valid. It should also ensure that all the required fields are filled in.
Automating the routing and approval procedure
The routing and the approval procedure should be automated. It is important to have workflows that can relate vendor information to appropriate individuals at the right time for approval, to save money and time. An ideal system should be in a position to forward information to several approvers and send it back to the vendor if any part of the submission is lacking.
Hasten approvals and authorizations
Vendors are looking for an organization that is sensitive to time. They are not willing to undergo months of waiting before they start doing business with you. Hence, be wise. One way to attracting vendors is by speeding the process of approval and authorization. For instance, you can facilitate easy approval or rejection by end users by ensuring they can do so, with a mouse click. It can also be rewarding if users can review and approve vendor requests from a variety of devices.
Store information correctly
It is crucial for you to store your vendor information in an appropriate way to prevent loss. An automatic system that stores the information for each vendor can prevent information loss. The information is imperative for future reference, or when re-hiring vendors.
If you implement the above steps in your vendor onboarding process, you can be assured of getting the right suppliers in your organization.