There has to be a better way!
A vendor packet is a collection of forms and documents that a buyer sends to a potential new vendor in order to gather the required information to establish a business relationship. These packets generally include all the necessary information needed to set up a new vendor for payment and to insure compliance with tax, insurance and other regulations and corporate policies. Vendor packets can be relatively simple or very robust depending on the industry and vendor type. Typically, contact and company information, tax and insurance documents, payment methods and accounts, and remit to information are found in most vendor packets. Depending on the products and services provided by the target vendor as well as the type of industry and company can influence the types of data and documentation collected. For instance, some organizations may require very specific licenses or permits while other companies may be interested in collecting and certifying diversity status of target vendors.
Collecting completed packets through dated means of email, and believe it or not in some cases the ancient methods of fax and snail mail, can be laborious and a present a strain on a buyer’s resources. In fact it is somewhat shocking the number of companies large and small who still perform this critical vendor management task manually. This is especially surprising when you consider there are technology solutions that can turn these activities from internal manual tasks to technology enabled vendor self-service functions.
ICG’s Vendor Onboarding and Maintenance solution, or supplier onboarding as some people refer to it, automates this process through vendor self-service in a cloud hosted environment. Replacing the traditional vendor packet with a with a vendor portal, or supplier portal, allows prospective vendors to logon on and provide the necessary data, upload documents for review and approval of the buying company, or download documents the buyer posts on the portal. This self-service platform greatly reduces the time and effort involved in setting up new vendors for both the buying company and their new vendor. Ongoing vendor management, such as tracking critical expirations are done automatically ensuring compliance at every step of your relationship with a vendor.
If your organization is struggling with the manual process of collecting data and documents from prospective suppliers or if you are unsure what should be contained in your new portal based “electronic vendor packet” contact ICG today for more information or schedule a demo for you and your team to see a vendor onboarding solution in a real world setting.