What is supplier management software?

Supplier management software is used to manage the suppliers’ lifecycle and supply chain management across all locations. It helps in improving the interactions with vendors of the company.

Why is supplier management software important?

1. Effectively managing a growing supplier list: When the business is new, there are only a few suppliers, and doing business with them is easier. As the business grows the supplier base will also grow along with the complexity of the supply chain. There’s more information available than the excel sheet can handle. Supplier management software helps businesses in managing suppliers and data available from them. It provides a dedicated portal for vendors’ onboarding, communication channels, and collaboration with them from a central location.
2. Saves time: A supplier management system can save hours worth of time through automation. From assessing the viability of suppliers, digitizing the process, and making the internal team’s work more efficient, vendor management software can do it all. This reduces the time spent on chasing suppliers through calls and emails when you can focus on other aspects of business.
3. Reducing supplier risk: It is hard to run business without few risks but wherever it can be minimized will be beneficial. When managing a supplier’s risk through spreadsheet, emails and shared drives, issues can easily be hidden or buried, making a business more exposed to risk. These risks can be reduced through supplier management software where all data is present on one collaborative platform so that no important data can go unnoticed or hidden under multiple excel sheets and drives.
4. Accuracy and productivity: when the time and efforts of the company saves, the productivity of people automatically increases. Those who have access to supplier management software are able to manage their tasks more precisely and more efficiently. Supplier management software provides a higher degree of accuracy because these software are designed to isolate and highlight high priority tasks for better productivity.
5. Improved supplier relationships: When there is visibility in operations along with clear communications the relations between supplier and vendor improves. This leads to more mutually beneficial relations which is a key to success of any brand. These software will give you most pertinent information at the most opportune moment so that the decisions made by the suppliers and retailers strengthen their relations with appropriate actions.

Unfortunately many businesses still use their homegrown solutions or excel sheets. These companies will be in a mountain of dead data before they know and the insights they generate will not be appropriate according to today’s needs. With vendor management software you can ensure that all supplier relations data is being used to its fullest potential and business is not lagging behind.