The adoption of supplier portals is significantly increasing in the ecosystem of suppliers, vendors, and trading partners. Statistically, a 20.2% annual growth rate is expected to lead B2B eCommerce market to USD 33K billion by 2030. Are you also playing a major role in these statistics?
However, only 63% of agencies and organizations are satisfied with their current supplier management system (source: Deloitte). Reasons? The increasing complexity of workflows in supplier management, limited visibility, resistance to disruption, insufficient user management, poor data management, and the lack of integration. Sounds so relatable?
Learn everything you need to know about the intricacies of supplier management with comprehensive insights below in this article. It’s a must-read for businesses like yours aiming to implement the best supplier portal and achieve digital transformation.
Supplier Portal | Supplier Management System
In simple words, a supplier portal is a tool or a platform that enables you to identify, qualify, onboard, transact, and collaborate with your suppliers and trading partners.
Benefits of a Supplier Management System
-
It reduces procurement processing costs by 50% and time spent on manual tasks by 42% (Source: Aberdeen Group).
-
It digitizes and automates multiple business-critical operations, such as procurement and payments.
-
It improves supplier onboarding process, at least by 20% (Source: Gartner).
-
Vendor portals enhance internal communication and visibility by decentralizing suppliers related information, including supplier records, purchase orders, quotes, invoices, and conversation.
-
71% of companies rely on supplier management systems to track and report supplier diversity metrics and 63% to assess ESG performance (Source: Deloitte).
Features of an Ideal Supplier Portal
Considering the above facts and research, a supplier management portal definitely makes it effortless for suppliers, vendors, and distributors to complete their daily tasks with productional efficiencies.
However, 52% of companies struggle with integrating supplier management systems with other enterprise applications (Source: Aberdeen Group), which is also a major challenge other than limited visibility, confusing workflow, resistance to disruption, insufficient user management, and poor data management.
And that makes choosing a supplier or vendor management system that improves ROI a critical challenge for most businesses. Here’re some of the must-have features in a supplier management system that will help you select a reliable supplier solution for your business.
Supplier self-service
A Supplier Management System must offer an intuitive interface that enables suppliers to autonomously update their information and manage orders with a self-service knowledge base. It reduces the admin burden for both parties.
Hassle-free supplier onboarding
Your vendor management portal must offer features of effortless onboarding, including registrations, clear guidance, requirements, automated form submissions, document uploads, and instant verification, which minimize delays and enhance user experience.
Communication & Collaboration
Effective communication and collaboration tools, including messaging platforms and discussion forms, in your supplier portal improve internal interactions, resolve issues instantly, and promote supplier relationships.
Document sharing & management
A supplier management system must incorporate document management capabilities like version control, secure storage, and accessibility permissions. It allows easy centralized access to critical documents and enhances productivity.
Sales & quote management
Integrated tools for managing sales orders, generating quotes, and tracking order status enable both suppliers and buyers to efficiently navigate the procurement process within the portal.
Campaign management
With a reliable vendor portal, you should be able to manage communication with targeted suppliers for promotions, discounts, exclusive offers, announcements, and surveys. It analyzes marketing campaigns, promotes targeted marketing, and strengthens supplier relationships.
Real-time financial tracking
Features such as expense management, cash flow, invoice status, and budget allocations in your supplier management software enable you to make informed & data-driven decisions, cut down overheads, and manage finances in real-time.
Customized workflow for the approvals
Configured workflows for your unique business needs in any portal enables timely approvals for purchases, contracts, and supplier onboarding. It improves overall productivity, enhances operational efficiency, and reduces manual labor.
User access management
User access management features in your supplier management system enable granular control over access rights and permissions. It secures sensitive data and ensures compliance with data protection regulations. A reliable portal allows you to assign roles and permissions to control access to different functionalities within the system.
Supplier performance tracking
Performance tracking functionalities in your supplier portal, such as supplier reliability, delivery timeliness, quality ratings, and responsiveness, enable you to evaluate vendor performances.
What makes Liferay DXP an ideal Supplier Portal?
Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is a complete platform that offers extended functionalities like personalization, security, and low code with a flexible system. Such capabilities in your vendor portal allow you to increase visibility, improve supplier interactions, and strengthen supplier relationships.
Offering a centralized and digital hub for managing supplier interactions, Liferay is at the forefront of digital transformation. With a suite of communication & collaboration tools, Liferay offers an effortless way to streamline the various aspects of supplier relationship management, from procurement to payment and beyond.
Streamline supplier onboarding
The onboarding process for suppliers is typically manual and takes longer than expected, which leads to additional operational costs and inaccuracies.
Digitizing the onboarding process using Liferay Supplier Portal will help you streamline the process. By using Liferay DXP, your suppliers can also access the business-critical information.
Liferay DXP features and capabilities
-
Validate and onboard traders/vendors directly within your portal.
-
Define step-by-step journeys based on user roles in various segments.
Enhance communication & collaboration
Your vendors and internal teams deal with multiple channels, like emails, messages, WhatsApp, and calls, which results in visibility challenges.
Centralizing the communication channel with Liferay enables you to build a single channel to collect information from suppliers, offer up-to-date information, resolve issues, and work together as a team.
Liferay supplier portal capabilities
-
Offer a single repository for all the information in CMS & DAM.
-
Create a shared workspace for collaboration and innovation.
-
Offer a personalized user experience to your suppliers with an intuitive dashboard, easy navigation, and relevant information.
Digitize & automate supplier operations
Most organizations perform manual processes to manage procurement, payment, and other operations. With Liferay DXP, you can integrate your established back-end systems. It allows you to gain transparency into these interactions and then use Liferay’s capabilities to digitize and automate common and repetitive tasks.
Liferay supplier portal functionalities
-
Integrate and connect with your existing backend system.
-
Customize workflows according to your unique business needs.
-
Make Liferay portal an entry point for multiple subsidiary systems.
Reduce costs & time-to-serve with self-service
Liferay DXP enables your suppliers to perform more tasks on their own, without needing to contact your team, with self-service capabilities.
Liferay DXP supplier portal features
-
Enable your suppliers to edit and control their own accounts.
-
Empower your suppliers by allowing them to access their accounts on multiple devices and channels.
-
Offer advanced search functionalities with in-built Elasticsearch.
-
Integrate with any third-party applications to make it a one-stop-solution.
Monitor & improve supplier performance
Working with or any external party including your vendors is a massive level of risk, and you must monitor them to keep them in line. With Liferay DXP, you can evaluate your supplier relationships effortlessly at your fingertips.
Liferay supplier management portal features
-
Integrate information across systems to gather and display real-time data.
-
Analyze workflow metrics to see if suppliers meet established SLAs.
-
Get and consolidate supplier feedback to plan mitigation strategies based on their necessities.
Conclusion
Based on the above facts and analysis, it's evident that the utilization of supplier management systems is experiencing a significant surge considering its advantages and is projected to continue in the future trends.
However, successfully implementing a supplier management system within your organization requires a thorough assessment of factors to effectively address common supplier challenges.
With Liferay DXP, you can equip your business with the right tools to create a supplier portal that is effective for your own teams as well as your suppliers’ complex needs. As an official partner and Liferay development company, we build dynamic and scalable supplier portal solutions for your unique needs.
For professional paid support, you may contact us at
[email protected]
.
