Streamline Supplier Management to refocus on analysis with Scanmarket’s procurement software

When managing third parties such as vendors, the supply chain gathers a lot of data. Procurements teams gather third party data not just to manage ESG and Diversity initiatives, but to record successful onboarding and offboarding, to monitor performance, and ensure compliance is succinct.

Successful Supplier Management aids performance analysis, mitigates risk, and optimizes sourcing strategies – but this requires a level of data management that just isn’t possible with legacy systems.

Procurement teams need to digitally transform and invest in procurement software not just to manage the data, but to bring value to the wider organization by analyzing third-party data.

In this blog we’ll explore the benefits of digitally enabled supplier management, why procurement teams need digital systems to manage suppliers, and how Scanmarket by Unit4 can help!

What is Supplier Management?

Dealing with third parties in any business context will naturally come with some risks attached. If you’re going to engage in business with someone and potentially exchange capital, you want to make sure they are trustworthy, and fit your requirements and make some record of this should authorities take interest, and to analyze performance.

Supplier Management is a procurement process that does exactly this, they record data related to third parties to manage risk, optimize performance, and provide information to regulatory bodies that enforce compliance – naturally, this creates a lot of data to manage, even for one supplier.

The benefits of digital supplier management

As we highlighted, there is a lot of data that needs to managed and keyed for easy access, and for large enterprises their list of suppliers is likely quite long and the data consolidation adds up. For only one supplier, procurement teams want to record many bits of data, such as:

• Contact details
• Financial dealings
• Operating hours
• Currency details
• Satisfaction
• Assets exchanged
• Whether they fit your compliance needs
• Contract details
• And much, much, more

Managing this data with manual processes is a tough task on its own, let alone the data and performance analysis that is defining success for procurement teams and reimaging their ability to deliver strategic value to the wider organization – here’s how digital processes make this easier:

Automated data processes – The manual keying, consolidating, and entry of data isn’t just ineffective and error-prone but fatigues your teams. By automating all these routine tasks it becomes much easier to repurpose time for analysis, and free your teams to deliver strategy.

Leverage real-time data – Gathering all this data is great, but it needs to be updated in real-time to be effective. Imagine you have a time-sensitive crisis to sort out and you go to check supplier information only to find it hasn’t been updated, its ineffective. In the Cloud, with automation, this can be a simple process and information will be updated automatically without any effort required for the team. 

A single system – With manual processes, there may be multiple applications used by different functions, such as HR and Finance, to record all the data needed. This creates a fragmented process that is hard to be confident with. Digital systems integrate all this data into one place, providing a single source of truth.

Simple Compliance – ESG and DE&I initiatives are hot talk in the procurement world. Your initiatives can be entered into the system and prospective/current suppliers can be filtered depending on what fits your initiative. It’s tough to get this flexibility and efficiency with manual systems.

Improved Analysis – Event history and analysis can require a lot of manual tasks to record and is vital to continually optimize the supplier experience – with digital systems its automatic and simple, enabling your team to analyze rather than fatigue through data entry.

Advanced Reporting Capabilities – Reporting is key for procurement teams to demonstrate value, but, again, requires some effort to do manually. Procurement software can ensure reports are accurate and generate them ad-hoc for any member of the team, even external personnel. All these reports can be centralized into dashboards for easy communication and analysis.

How can Scanmarket make Supplier Management simple?

Scanmarket by Unit4 Supplier Management is the ideal digital solution for large enterprises who find manual data processes ineffective. When empowered with our procurement software, organizations can reduce tasks by 65% with a single 360-degree centralized repository of supplier data.

Easily access, report on and interrogate all supplier data and documents from one central repository, with configurable dashboards and numerous supplier segmentation options. Pre-configured dashboards provide useful analytics, and the powerful search and filter functionality allows you to easily generate the analytics you need.

Reduce the risk of non-compliance within the supply chain by ensuring supplier information is automatically updated and flagged in the event of noncompliance. Suppliers will automatically be prompted by email to upload a new document 30 days before it’s expiry date, ensuring compliance at all times.

Don’t just take our word for it – Tim Elliot, Head of Procurement for Leaders Romans Group, a Scanmarket customer, notes: “Scanmarket by Unit4 Supplier Management support was excellent particularly around how we wanted to build out own portal […] the onboarding from Scanmarket has been a real point of difference”.

To learn more about Scanmarket Supplier Management visit our dedicated product page, or talk to sales today.