Vendor Management Automation — Where Your Business Is Going?

Most companies have problems managing their vendors and contracts. Are you tired of manually updating spreadsheets? Are you spending too much time managing your contracts with vendors? Every company is different, and so is every vendor. Managing vendor relationships is a long process with many stages including vendor vetting process, onboarding, purchase requisitions, purchase orders, order confirmation, performance monitoring, and more.

You must carry out all these tasks to ensure that your vendor relationships are working smoothly, which will, in turn, affect your day-to-day business operations. Considering the scope and volume of tasks involved in the vendor management process, it is crucial to automate the process and get rid of manual and error-prone processes.

Automation of vendor management processes can get more work done faster, with fewer resources, and with greater accuracy.

Why automate the vendor management process?

• Automating manual vendor management processes eliminates the human factor from the loop. So in a way, it reduces time-wasting human influence significantly. This ultimately leads to processes that are completed faster.
• In the manually operated procurement system, procurement staff has to read between the lines and analyze hundreds of documents to compile data and finalize contacts. However, automated systems can help you keep track of all the data it generates. And, it also allows you to track a specific data point and offers periodic reports that can be collected and analyzed, whenever needed.
• Vendor management process automation helps to consolidate entire information at one centralized place in the form of dashboards. You can easily access all key information easily like when a contract is due for renewal, where does the payment cycle stands, what is the status of negotiations and compliances, etc.
• Automation also evaluates the performance of suppliers. Based on the performance ratings, you can easily figure out the vendors that are repeatedly falling behind your pre-agreed contractual terms and vice-versa.
• With automation, you can unlock insights into supply trends and can plan to stock up essentials that are critical to your smooth operations.

What to automate when it comes to vendor management?

Vendor management is not a simple task that you execute one and off. It is an ongoing process. Now you know the need of automating your vendor onboarding to the performance monitoring process. These are the areas where automation adds value in eliminating error, improving data visibility, and increasing process efficiencies:

Vendor onboarding

With automated workflows, you can create a common template for all vendor onboarding. In the same format, you will get all the necessary documents uploaded and all forms filled up. the form which will grab the approver’s attention so as to get it approved in time.

Spend analysis

With accurate procurement spend analysis, you can drastically reduce overall costs. However, a problem that often arises out of spend analysis initiatives is poor quality and lack of recorded data. With automated workflows, you can properly conduct spend analysis, with clear visibility.

Supplier analysis

Analysis of suppliers is a must to optimize the overall performance of your procurement cycle. A constant and precise supplier analysis results in greater insight into operations, proactively identification of growth opportunities, lowered business risks, and streamlined production timelines.

Read More: https://aavenir.com/3-ways-to-prepare-supplier-questionnaires/

Category analysis

Similar to suppliers’ analysis, you can also automate workflows pertaining to the analysis of categories. Vendor management automation enables breaking down your expenses into marketing, legal, office supplies, travel, sundry spending, and others. This clear segregation offers you a much better idea of where your money is going and be able to make informed decisions overspend.

And the list doesn’t end here -get started now!

Changing landscape of e-procurement calls for innovative ways to improve the efficiency of your vendor management processes, and automation is indeed one such solution to ensure you are getting the best return on your money. Vendor evaluation, automation, and management on ServiceNow are one of the best options to optimize your entire source-to-settle cycle.

To start with the vendor management automation, download the Vendor Contract Review & Negotiation Checklist.