Vendor management and procurement are tricky, involving processes like documentation management, contract creation and follow-up, obtaining materials, payment management, and much more. This complexity is exactly why a shift from conventional methods is essential to crack the code.
The digital transformation market is expected to grow from $521.5 billion USD in 2021 to $1.247 trillion by 2026. In recent times, digital transformation has increasingly become a necessity, so if you're facing issues adapting to new technology for your vendor management process, this article is for you.
What are the challenges we face when vendors are managed manually?
Manual methods have worked in the past, but there are some key aspects that traditional processes tend to miss. Here are some of the problems with the manual model of handling vendors:
- Complexity
When vendor management is handled manually, it's arduous to track the process or know why the process is not moving forward, unless the manager goes around and asks.
- Documentation errors
Paperwork is hectic. Getting the right documents from vendors, verifying contracts and purchase requests, keeping track of all the documents and data, and comparing costs—everything becomes highly time-consuming and prone to errors.
- Compliance risk
When the organization is dealing with sensitive data, compliance is mandatory. Manual processes pose a risk when haphazardly handling multiple vendors without a standard process.
- Communication chaos
Managing vendors includes negotiations, comparisons, endless follow-ups, and constant approvals—the slightest miscommunication can dismantle the entire process and demand even more time and effort.
- Anecdotal-driven
Conventional methods of handling processes generally don't consider quantifiable data as a key part of measuring the vendor management process. Every analysis is just based on the manager's observation as to how the team is performing, which makes it highly difficult to identify bottlenecks.
What do we mean by digitizing the vendor management process?
Digitizing is when a firm goes from manually operating processes to adopting digital methods to coordinate, analyze, store, and manage data. Conventional procurement happens using multiple spreadsheets comparing costs, data stored across different platforms, and follow-ups happening via email. Digitizing, on the other hand, helps you simplify vendor onboarding, manage contracts, reduce risks, enhance the documentation process, and improve your vendor relationship.
One of the ways to digitize a firm is to adopt workflow automation—a programmatic technology that helps in standardizing processes, automating repetitive tasks, and streamlining the process to give better results
Here are some benefits of workflow automation:
Streamlines the process of identifying and allocating necessary resources
Provides access to contextual information across platforms
Performs repetitive tasks and prevents human errors
Reduces operating costs
Helps you manage data on one platform
Measures the efficiency of tasks and identifies delays with KPI reports
Reduce approval cycles
Does your firm need digital transformation?
Yes! With a digital infusion, you can harness more effective vendor management capabilities. You can develop better relationships with vendors by having smooth collaboration in each project. Your data can be stored in the cloud and easily accessed, which avoids errors. Additionally, the process can be tracked, the time and resources invested can be measured, and bottlenecks can be effortlessly identified.
What are the benefits of using workflow automation like Qntrl for vendor management?
Easily manage your entire vendor management process—contract negotiation, vendor setup, onboarding, invoicing, payments, due diligence, and more.
Get full transparency into all your activities with effortless tracking of ongoing processes and performance.
Reduce repetition and run error-free process automation with minimal human intervention.
With automated notification and a single dashboard, handle all processes faster, using fewer resources, and lowering costs. Quickly progress through purchase requests, vendor identification, purchase completion, and payments.
Get access to every scrap of data—capture, store, and immediately share it with your team from anywhere. Verify all required documents, like the RFx, PO, and invoice, from a single platform.
Create interactive forms to be sent to vendors for registration. Link them to your system and eliminate the need to spend long amounts of time processing them.
Think all these benefits are too good to ignore? Put an end to your vendor management challenges now. Sourcing and onboarding vendors, obtaining quotes, sending payment requests, running performance evaluations, and relationship management—can all work with just a few clicks. The future lies in digitization, so why not get in on the action?
Check out our vendor management template for further details.
