Quickly Transition Your Team To Remote

Our configurable solutions can be rapidly implemented to equip your workers with the tools they need to process transactions and manage vendors from any location.

 
 

Make Vendor Self-Service Work for You

Do more with less. Portal based solutions that deliver sensational value and reduce risk.

Vendor self-service is a very popular trend in procurement, accounts payable and finance because of the tremendous value it delivers. This trend has become even more pronounced as many workers have shifted to remote operations and companies struggle to fill open positions. What better time to implement a vendor self-service program in your organization and shift the burden for vendor related activities back to the vendor.

Vendor self-service, or supplier self-service if you prefer, is the process by which vendor management activities are directed away from the buying company to the the vendor, or selling company. An illustration of how the process generally works today, the buying company dedicates resources and expends the time and effort to communicate with the vendor to get data and documents that are necessary to do the research and perform the tasks to setup a relationship, facilitate transactions, insure compliance and resolve a dispute. These processes tend to be very manual, labor intensive, slow, and time constrained by varying time zones of the vendor companies, making contact and research all the more difficult. The result of these inefficiencies can be labor hours being spent on non-value add activities, poor use of working capital, frustration from lingering unresolved disputes, uneven cash flows, and missed discount opportunities to name a few. The goal of a vendor self-service initiative is to redeploy human resources to more value added tasks by transferring the responsibility of vendor centric activities back to the vendor. Let’s look at the tools and processes you can target to establish a vendor self-service program.

So what processes lend themselves to vendor self-service? Some of the more common processes that benefit from a vendor self-service program are Accounts Payable, Dispute Resolution, Vendor Onboarding (Supplier Onboarding) and PO Dispatch & Update. Each of these functional areas can benefit from a vendor self-service program facilitated through the use of cloud hosted Vendor Portals or Supplier Portals. Let examine each area:

Vendor Onboarding – Of course before any vendor relationship can be established, the procurement department and the AP department must “onboard” vendors. The process of vendor onboarding is collecting all the data and documentation necessary for a company to meet all of the compliance requirements required to qualify to be a vendor for the buying company. This process is very labor intensive for the buying company who is charged with collecting and validating the voluminous information they must gather. With a self-service vendor portal, potential vendors can log on and start supplying the necessary documents needed by the buying company such as insurance certificates, tax documents, licenses and certificates, contracts and the data required to complete transactions such address, product, and contact information. This information can then be validated, in many cases through automated validation tools inside the portal, i.e., TIN Check which can validate the legitimacy of a companies Tax ID number or SSN by matching against the IRS database. There are numerous other validations that can be done through automated systems to reduce or eliminate these time consuming activities. In addition to onboarding a vendor by collecting and validating information, the self service portal can also act as an ongoing management tools by tracking expirations for insurance and licensing and sending automatic notifications when a vendor is approaching non-compliance so they can take action in a timely manner to maintain their standing as an authorized supplier.

Accounts Payable – AP can benefit from a vendor portal in two main ways, by directing vendor payment inquiries through the portal and delivering the answers based on status of a payment in the buyers ERP or AP Automation application. Instead of a vendor calling into a company and having the buyers personnel research the status of a payment then responding, the vendor can now login to a portal 24×7 from anywhere in the world including via a mobile device and ascertain the payment status with no intervention or effort on the part of the buying company. Additionally, the vendor can submit invoices or other payment documents to the buying company directly through the vendor portal by either filling out a web form, use of PO flip capabilities, or uploading a billing file. The information provided is then read and ingested into the buyers payables systems and processed for approval and/or payment. No need to open mail, scan documents, data enter invoice information or any of the other costly manual activities found in a traditional AP process.

Dispute Resolution – One of the more labor intensive processes in vendor management can be payment dispute resolution. A vendor may dispute the amount a buyer paid, or is going to pay, which differs from the invoice generated by the vendor. There may be many reasons a buying company disputes a payment amount but the process of resolving those disputes can be very labor intensive, slow, and burdensome for the buying company. There is also implications for the vendor (and their cash flow!) who is waiting for their money, which has likely already been outstanding for some time by extended payment terms from the buyer. By allowing the vendor to submit disputes through the vendor portal along with relevant information and documentation, the buying company can efficiently research and communicate through the portal with the vendor and come to a resolution much quicker, with more transparency, and requiring far less manual effort.

PO Dispatch & Update – Vendor self-service does not just benefit the AP and finance departments, the purchasing function for the buying company can also reap substantial benefits through vendor self-service by automating the the dispatching and updating of PO’s. Through the use of the same cloud hosted portals described above, purchase orders can be automatically dispatched to vendors who can then logon to the portal and take action on the dispatched PO, i.e., acknowledge, accept, reject, or pend. The solution ICG offers can also proactively require the vendor to provide real-time updates on critical, time sensitive orders to help you manage the flow of goods and services through your supply chains. Using this automation tools eliminates the needs to emails, phone calls and manually tracking the progress of orders.

These are just four of the more common areas where a vendor portal based solution can drive vendor self-service and push the manual tasks of dispatching, collecting, researching, matching, validating and communicating from your staff and your budget back to the vendor. After all, the vendor wants to sell you goods and services, why shouldn’t they be the ones to pay for that privilege! Contact ICG Consulting today to learn how you can implement a vendor self-service program or schedule a demo of one of our vendor management solutions.