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Category: strategic sourcing

Multi-sourcing in Healthcare Procurement

As the head of procurement at your hospital, your job is demanding enough even when things are running smoothly. Lately, you can’t seem to catch a break. Suppliers aren’t delivering critical items on time. Prices for basic supplies have skyrocketed, and you’re constantly putting out fires. There has to be a better way.

What if you could transform your procurement process to minimize headaches and maximize value? By adopting a multi-sourcing strategy, you’ll gain more control, flexibility, and cost savings. This approach revolutionizes traditional healthcare purchasing models by diversifying your supply base and keeping suppliers on their toes. Get ready to improve quality, access innovations, and avoid supply chain disruption. Multi-sourcing is the remedy for what’s ailing your procurement operations. Discover how this game-changing strategy can ease your stress and make you a supply chain hero.

The Benefits of Multi-sourcing in Healthcare Procurement

To keep your hospital running, flexibility and risk mitigation are key. That’s why more and more healthcare organizations are turning to multi-sourcing for procurement.

With huge cost savings, flexibility, and risk reduction, multi-sourcing makes sense for healthcare. By partnering with multiple pre-vetted vendors, hospitals gain security, choice, and value. Free up your resources, gain expertise, and take your procurement to the next level with the power of multi-sourcing. It may just be the prescription for greater efficiency and effectiveness that the doctor ordered!

If you’re looking for some more general information about multi-sourcing, check out this article.

How Hospitals Can Implement a Multi-sourcing Strategy

To implement a multi-sourcing strategy, hospitals need to make some important changes.

First, rethink your procurement process. Rather than relying on a single vendor for all your needs, look at breaking up contracts into specialized modules. For example, instead of getting your entire EMR system from one place, choose separate suppliers for modules like e-prescribing, telehealth, and medical imaging that meet your specific requirements.

This approach gives you more flexibility and control. You can match each module to your needs and upgrade or replace them independently. It also spurs more competition among vendors. They have to work harder to win your business for each module.

Next, take advantage of cloud-based information sharing. The cloud makes it much easier for different EMR modules and suppliers to connect and work together, and patients reap the benefits. Patient information follows them seamlessly between providers and services, alleviating redundant input and saving patients time. Utilizing cloud-based platforms that share information also creates cost savings. You don’t have to invest in expensive on-site hardware and software, time-intensive IT projects, or the staff to maintain on-site databases and servers.

Finally, reorganize internally around patient demand. Break down divisions between departments and specialties. Use multisourcing and the cloud to quickly share information and respond to patients’ needs, no matter where they are in the system.

Following these steps will revolutionize how you procure healthcare technology and services. A multisourcing strategy, enabled by the cloud, can help lower costs, improve the patient experience, and make your hospital more agile and responsive. 

Key Considerations for Healthcare Multi-sourcing

Physician Preferences

When multi-sourcing medical supplies, hospitals must consider physician preferences. Doctors often develop preferences for certain brands or types of supplies based on their experiences. Not accounting for these preferences could lead to pushback, complications, or compatibility issues. Talk to physicians to determine what they prefer for key supplies, especially for high-risk procedures. You may need to negotiate with suppliers to provide those preferred brands at a reasonable cost.

Rapid Innovation

The healthcare industry is rapidly innovating. Multi-sourcing strategies must evolve quickly to keep up with changes in medical technology, treatments, and best practices. What works this year may be outdated next year. Stay on top of trends in healthcare to adjust sourcing accordingly. Work closely with suppliers that demonstrate a commitment to continued innovation. Consider shorter-term contracts and relationships with multiple suppliers in fast-changing areas of medicine.

Dependable Supply

Above all else, a hospital’s supply chain must be dependable. Multi-sourcing introduces more complexity, and thus more potential points of failure. Choose suppliers carefully based on their proven ability to provide consistent, high-quality products and services. Build contingency plans for possible supply chain disruptions into your multi-sourcing strategy. Consider keeping secondary suppliers on standby, and maintaining small buffer stocks for critical supplies.

Additional Considerations

Other factors to weigh when multi-sourcing for hospitals include:

By carefully evaluating these key considerations, hospitals can implement an effective multi-sourcing strategy that reduces costs while maintaining high standards of care. Close collaboration with physicians and suppliers is key to success. With the right partners and contingency plans in place, multisourcing can revolutionize healthcare procurement.

Case Study: How a Major US Hospital Network Achieved Millions in Savings

A major US hospital network provides an excellent case study of how multi-sourcing can revolutionize healthcare procurement and generate significant cost savings. By implementing several cost-reduction strategies, this network achieved millions in savings.

Evidence-based strategies

The network focused on evidence-based fall prevention programs, reducing falls in hospitals that often lead to high costs. Implementing proven fall prevention methods and technology allowed the network to cut costs associated with inpatient falls.

Modernizing infrastructure

The network also updated its data centers using Cisco technologies, achieving improved efficiency, security, and cost savings. By upgrading to state-of-the-art data centers, the network reduced IT costs through consolidation and avoided expensive downtime.

Renegotiating vendor contracts

The network renegotiated contracts with key vendors to get better rates and terms. Using its size and buying power, the network was able to get substantial discounts from vendors seeking its large-volume business. New pricing and payment terms with vendors accounted for much of the total savings.

Optimizing staffing

The network optimized staffing levels and schedules based on patient volume and acuity. By aligning staffing to demand, the network reduced excess staffing costs during low-volume periods. The network also found opportunities to reorganize certain roles and responsibilities to improve productivity.

By taking a multi-pronged approach to cost reduction through evidence-based strategies, technology upgrades, improved vendor management, and staffing optimization, the hospital network generated over $50 million in annual savings. The success of this network shows how multi-sourcing can help healthcare organizations cut costs in innovative ways while still delivering high-quality care. The key is tapping into the power of diverse resources and solutions to fundamentally transform spending.

FAQ: Common Questions About Multi-sourcing in Hospitals

What exactly is multi-sourcing in healthcare procurement?

Multi-sourcing refers to a procurement strategy where a hospital sources goods and services from multiple external suppliers, rather than relying on a single provider. This approach allows hospitals to get the best value for money by choosing the most suitable and cost-effective suppliers for different product categories.

How does multi-sourcing benefit hospitals?

How do hospitals implement a multi-sourcing strategy?

  1. Determine which product and service categories would benefit most from multi-sourcing. Things like medical supplies, IT equipment, and facilities management are good options.
  2. Research and evaluate potential suppliers in each category. Consider their experience, quality standards, customer service, and pricing.
  3. Negotiate contracts with the selected suppliers, often through group purchasing organizations that hospitals belong to.
  4. Manage multiple supplier relationships to ensure coordinated purchasing and the best outcomes. This may require a dedicated multisourcing manager.

What challenges does multi-sourcing present?

Using a multi-sourcing approach for procurement allows hospitals to optimize value and outcomes. While it does present some challenges, when implemented strategically, multi-sourcing can revolutionize the way hospitals purchase goods and services.

Conclusion

Multi-sourcing in healthcare procurement is making it possible for hospitals to provide better care at lower costs. By tapping into multiple suppliers for the same categories of goods and services instead of relying on a single source, healthcare organizations gain more negotiating power, access to innovation, and supply chain resilience. The synergies and cost savings gained from diversifying suppliers and increasing competition are game-changing. While transitioning to a multisourcing model requires upfront investment and effort, the long-term benefits to your hospital’s bottom line and ability to serve patients are well worth it. If you’re not already exploring how to implement multisourcing in your procurement strategy, now is the time to start. The healthcare industry is transforming, and multisourcing could be your competitive advantage.

Understanding The Famous 7 Step Strategic Sourcing Process

In today’s competitive business climate, many professionals are continuously seeking ways to optimize cost but still assure the highest quality of products and services. To achieve that requires a lot of effort on constantly improving and re-evaluating the purchasing activities of a company, which is also known as Strategic Sourcing.

What is Strategic Sourcing?

Strategic Sourcing is a procurement process that creates efficiency across all activities within the procurement cycle to secure the best possible price for a product or service. The main objectives are to save money and improve the acquisition process, supplier performance, and minimize risk. 

Strategic sourcing focuses on the shared gains in a collaborative relationship. Strategic partners look for new innovative ways for your products and services. In turn, they want your commitment to the long-term strategic partnership.

In this article, we introduce one of the best practices used by many procurement professionals. No matter the purchasing size, the 7-step strategic sourcing practice, originally developed by A.T. Kearney, has been tested and proven effective for sourcing products and services. The final results could be cost-saving, greater value-added and time saved.

Step 1: Profile The Category

The first step is to identify the sourcing category or commodity, including the volumes (quantity, types and sizes) spent on products and services, current prices and suppliers, and specification details. Also, don’t forget to analyze your users – who they are, where they are located – and departments involved in the supply chain.

Step 2: Supply Market Analysis

Understand your buyer power and category critically to position the sourcing strategy by performing market analysis. Then, you determine what strategy approach better fits with the type of service you’re sourcing.

Kraljic’s Matrix is seen as one of the most effective ways to segment the vendor base. This two-by-two matrix is mapped against two key dimensions: risk and profitability. Risk demonstrates the likelihood of unexpected events occurring that may disrupt the operations. Profitability describes the possibility of impacting the bottom line of the organization.

Once you identify the segmentation of a product and service, you’ll have a clear vision of how the product and service impact the overall business, then be more confident about what strategy and partner relationship you should implement.

Step 3: Develop a Strategic Sourcing Strategy

It is a critical step in deciding where and how to buy while minimizing the risk and cost. To get the best of our supplier pool, you should consider both existing and potential suppliers. Establish your business’ goal and the minimum requirements for suppliers, then list the selection criteria that are most suited to your requirements, capabilities and resources. A cross-functional team with critical stakeholders is highly recommended.

Step 4: Select The Strategic Sourcing Process

Time to solicit bids! The most common method that many businesses are using is Request for Proposal (RFP). 

If you’re not familiar with the term, RFP is a document that solicits proposals, which is often used through a bidding process, written by an organization interested in acquiring a product or service from vendors for their project. The document outlines the details of product or service specifications, requirements, pricing breakdown, legal and financial terms and conditions, and evaluation criteria.

Step 5: Negotiate with and Select Suppliers

Now you may have many suppliers that respond to your RFP. Your next task is to shortlist the most potential suppliers, then interview for clarification or asking more details if needed. The more information you have from each supplier, the better decision you will make. 

To do that, you need to form the best possible team that knows the product or service you want to purchase, which helps ask the right questions to potential suppliers.

Step 6: Implementation and Integration

Communicating with suppliers is an integral part of strategic sourcing. After negotiation, you may have the decision of what suppliers you want to partner with. Make sure you notify those successful suppliers that are going to be involved in the implementation stage. The more complex your product is, the tighter your cooperation and partnership should be. It’s critical to integrate suppliers into your meetings or discussions included in the implementation stage, making sure they’re up-to-date on the most recent changes and updates.

Step 7: Benchmarking 

Many people underestimate this step, but it’s a huge mistake to skip it. It’s essential to measure the supplier’s performance over time – starting with benchmarking the current status of the product, continuously monitoring the results and ensuring the goal is being achieved. By doing so, you can quickly identify the problem during the implementation and notify your supplier to address the issue with the lowest business impact.

How SupplierGATEWAY can help with strategic sourcing

In today’s chaotic world, all organizations need strategic sourcing to stay competitive and relevant to the market and deliver the most significant benefits for the organization.

Here at SupplierGATEWAY, we are experts in offering supplier data management and source-to-pay solutions that help businesses employ strategic sourcing easily, quickly, and inexpensively. Our easy-to-use and instant-on software gives you all the tools to post new project opportunities to your suppliers’ list, source and engage with suppliers globally, customize your project’s requirements, solicit bids, and even pay your suppliers with rebates. Everything is automated and managed in one place.  

Create an agile supply chain, automate your processes, and start saving your team time and money today! Schedule your demo now.

5 Tips To Write An RFP That Get You Results

Creating a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a crucial business practice that allows a company to identify and engage the right supplier to satisfy a requirement. A well-written RFP substantially increases your company’s chances of getting the services or products you need at a price that works for you. The ultimate goal is to ensure you’re working with qualified suppliers at what you consider the best value.

In this blog, we will give you a clear picture of what RFP is and list five tips for writing an effective RFP that can help you get high response rates.

What Is RFP?

According to Wikipedia, A request for proposal (RFP) is a document that solicits a proposal, often made through a bidding process, by an agency or company interested in procurement of a commodity, service, or valuable asset, to potential suppliers to submit business proposals.

In simple words, an RFP is a document created by a buyer requesting information about a product or service requirement, generally sent to suppliers to propose solutions. The purpose of an RFP is to enable buyers to compare the features and prices across potential suppliers. 

A great RFP contains clear criteria that are important to a buyer. By properly structuring and articulating the requirements in an RFP, you can identify how well each supplier understands your project and set benchmarks to measure a project’s success later. 

RFP Format

This is one of the biggest challenges in crafting RFP, mainly because there is no standard format. The typical RFP includes sets of questions that are split by section and subsection, which is more important for large or complex requirements. 

RFP responses can be as simple as yes/no interrogations or require narrative responses. Additionally, suppliers may be requested to submit other information and send additional documents such as the company introduction, why they believe they’re a better fit than the other competitors, etc., to explain the rationale behind the answers.

What Key Elements Should Be Included In RFP?

Though each RFP varies based on the goals and needs of a project, there are a few core elements that should be included in most categories (according to HubSpot):

  1. Background/Introduction
  2. Project Goals and Scope of Services
  3. Anticipated Selection Schedule
  4. Time and Place of Submission of Proposals
  5. Timeline
  6. Elements of Proposal
  7. Evaluation Criteria
  8. Possible Roadblocks
  9. Budget

Tips To Write A Compelling RFP

When you are putting together an RFP for any category, it is critical to provide a clear overview of the project to attract the best responses. With these five tips in mind, you can be confident that the RFP process will be productive for you and the suppliers who elect to participate.

Planning

Planning what to put into an RFP will save you a ton of time in the process of reviewing and selecting the right suppliers. Regardless of the scope and complexity of your RFP, these three main components should always be at the top of your mind.  (i) Making sure you have clearly defined your need, (ii) establish your communication strategy and (iii) define your evaluation criteria.

Stakeholders Involvement

An RFP is all about solving problems for your business. To draw great responses from the suppliers, you must ask the right questions. How can you achieve that? Collaborate with stakeholders. Coordinating with people who will be impacted the most by your purchase will help you identify the challenge, the tools you need, and define success. Bringing these people into the early stage of writing RFP will help prevent scope ambiguity and unclear requirements to suppliers. 

Be careful to separate our needs from wishes.  Unless money is no object, you may have to clarify what you must have versus what you would like to have, if possible.  The process of determining this also has an impact on how you set your evaluation criteria.

Set Important Dates

People usually underestimate the importance of time when writing an RFP – both theirs and the suppliers’ time. 

Be detailed without being prescriptive

Focusing on detailing your project goals instead of telling suppliers how to do the job will encourage respondents to freely use their expertise and insights in presenting their solutions. Suppliers are more likely to respond to RFPs that gives them room to be creative and suggest solutions. 

Remember to ensure that you can still evaluate the responses relative to your needs. This is, after all, about what you want.

Be Transparent:

A great RFP should include as many details as possible to describe the requirement so that respondents don’t have to guess what you need or have to make lots of assumptions. By removing the guesswork, you allow suppliers to focus entirely on the solution – such as optimizing a budget range, satisfying both low and high-level requirements and so on.

RFP Is A Time-Consuming Process…

The better an RFP is, the better the proposal your suppliers can send to you. The best thing to remember is – if you can’t describe what you want, then there is a high likelihood your supplier cannot describe the solution in a way that will be acceptable to you.  Up-front work that results in clear and concise requirements, timelines, expectations and evaluation criteria yields the most effective responses (assuming you engaged the right suppliers!)

One way to reduce the challenge is to use automation to eliminate the non-value-added effort and make sure the right suppliers are in your respondent pool.  

Remember, the software can be your friend (finding potential bidders, distributing information and coordinating responses, receiving bids according to policy standards, etc.) and can also be your enemy (asking 100 boilerplate template questions when only ten would do the job). A judicious combination of planning and automation helps you achieve your goal – working with qualified suppliers at what you consider the best value.

In the SupplierGATEWAY Sourcing app, you can quickly post new opportunities to promptly find prospective suppliers that are likely to meet your needs. The easy-to-use Bid app accelerates and streamlines the process of engaging suppliers to request bids and quotes and manage responses, even for small projects. Also, The software enables you to schedule web meetings, conference calls, or even in-person meetings with selected suppliers – all in one place. If you’re interested, watch our demo and get started today for free.

Multi-Sourcing: Everything You Need To Know

The outsourcing model has been popular over the years as companies scale up and require specific supply needs to accommodate their growth. Yet, many companies have been questioning and doubting the effectiveness of having one provider meet their procurement objectives. Instead, they adopt a new approach by having multiple vendors involved, known as “multi-outsourcing.” 

Increasingly, many businesses consider outsourcing as a part of their procurement strategy to maximize performance and gain a competitive advantage. This article will give you most of all necessary information that can enhance your understanding and whether multi-sourcing should be a part of your business strategy.

Definition

Before diving deeper into the topic, we should be clear about what outsourcing is. In simple words, outsourcing is the practice of obtaining goods and services from third-party suppliers. This is commonly used to reduce costs and add specific skill sets needed for a product or service without requiring substantial in-house investment to get something done quickly.

Multi-sourcing, also known as multiple sourcing, is an outsourcing approach in which products or services are contracted to various suppliers needed to conduct the business instead of using traditional single sourcing.

Is Multi-Sourcing A Good Strategy?

Leveraging multi-sourcing can create flexibility and mitigate the risks of causing supply chain disruptions from unexpected events such as natural disasters or the most recent coronavirus outbreak. On the other hand, working with multiple suppliers adds complexity to the supply chain, making it challenging to manage suppliers. To get a better understanding, here are some main pros and cons of multi-sourcing:

Pros:

Cons: 

Besides these main points, some external factors also influence whether you should adopt multi-sourcing. Smaller businesses tend to have less flexibility in choosing suppliers due to limited budgets and labor. Hence, the answer will depend on what particular project you are working on and your capabilities. Each factor will lead you in a different direction that is best in your current situation.

Supplier Lifecycle Management

As mentioned, there are still drawbacks of multi-sourcing besides many benefits. One of the biggest challenges is how to effectively manage the complexity of having multiple vendors. Manual workflows to manage suppliers no longer works in the multi-sourcing model. Instead, many businesses embracing multi-sourcing utilize the end-to-end process of supplier lifecycle management to ensure their operations run smoothly and more efficiently.

Here are the eight critical areas in most supplier management solutions.

  1. Qualification: This is the first step of supplier management when making sure your suppliers meet your specific requirements or not. There are a hundred or thousands of suppliers participating in your program. Therefore, it’s essential to filter only the ones that satisfied your requirements.
  1. Evaluation: After suppliers submit their application for the evaluation process, you will start evaluating those who passed the first step based on different criteria such as quality, supply risk, customer reviews, performance, diversity, etc. – whatever matters to you and your organization most will be considered in this stage.
  1. Selection: After assessing all of the candidates, the number of qualified suppliers should be significantly narrowed down for you to make a decision. This selection process is crucial cause it directly impacts your business operations; hence, it takes time. The ultimate goal is to maximize the potential value and able to build a long-term relationship.
  1. Onboarding: This step is all about collecting all the necessary information and documents that you need to get a supplier approved in your system. Once a supplier is approved, you can now see updates on supplier information and their performance.
  1. Supplier Performance: Supplier performance management helps your company find out the problems early and solve them quickly. It’s essential to constantly monitor and value their performance to determine whether they follow the agreement’s terms. 
  1. Identifying Risk: the goal is to reduce risk as much as possible. Identifying risk will prevent unexpected events such as a breach of contract, late deliveries, low quality, etc. Risk management is critical and yet the most overlooked.
  1. Supplier Development: Businesses with strong collaborative relationships with their suppliers are more likely to grow faster than those who aren’t. Regularly sending feedback to supplies will help improve the process and manufacturing capabilities.
  1. Supplier Management: Cultivating a mutually beneficial relationship with your suppliers will give you a significant ROI and gain more competitive advantage and innovation, which results in reducing cost, lower risk and higher quality. 

Solutions for Effective Multi-Sourcing: Automation Is A Future

Though it seems overwhelming, supplier lifecycle management is not impossible to reach. It has already been a critical part when it comes to business success. Having a clear and centralized view of your procurement and supply chain brings significant benefits to the performance. With automation, you can unlock the full potential of your current and future suppliers by utilizing robust software that allows you to do these 8 steps simultaneously with much less effort.

SupplierGATEWAY’s scalable, instant-on and robust software provides everything you need – the ultimate supplier management, procurement and supplier diversity solutions that help businesses of all sizes to manage their suppliers easily, quickly, effectively and at a low cost. We’re excited to tell you more. Contact us today!

The Power of Certifications and Why It Matters

Globalization has brought not only significant benefits to the business but also difficulties in sharpening its competitive advantages. Across all industries, many organizations have been embracing a strategic supplier diversity program to set themselves apart from the competition. 

However, to certify or not certify – that’s still a question most suppliers face at some point in the journey of positioning their brand. Is a supplier diversity certification worth it? Why does it matter? Do I have to certify my business? This article will give you answers to these questions.

Diversity Certification for Suppliers, Explained.

A supplier diversity certification is issued when a third-party certification agency verifies, screens and validates that your business is diverse. This certification serves as proof to buyers that your business meets the inclusion program requirements, therefore increasing opportunities to get into the door that may not be available to the non-certified suppliers.

These certifications are vital when you’re trying to partner with government agencies, some of which are mandated by law to source a certain percentage of the supply needs from certified small or diverse-owned businesses.

Type of Diversity Certification for Suppliers

As per definition, a diverse supplier is a business that is at least 51% owned and operated by an individual or group that is part of a traditionally underrepresented or under-served group. Some common classifications include:

Does It Really Matter to Buyers?

Today consumers are getting smarter in knowing what brand aligns with their values, whether it’s supporting small or minority-owned businesses. Hence, supplier diversity matters to buyers. It is a key part of a company’s efforts to keep promises in maintaining high ethical and moral standards.

For example, Coca-Cola is spending over $800 million annually on diverse suppliers and has a goal of increasing that to more than $1 billion by the end of 2020. As of 2019, the retailer Target, one of our SupplierGATEWAY platform users, increased diverse supplier spend by over 35% (compared with 2017) and spent $1.4 billion on goods and services provided by first-tier diverse suppliers.

Certifications Are Your Marketing Tool, Not Everything You Have

It’s great for your business to have a certification. Yet, it’s not the only thing you should rely upon, especially when you’re pitching to buyers. Certifications don’t guarantee winning new business. Instead, certification should be a marketing tool to facilitate your business being noticed and make the right sales pitch. Leveraging it as a value of trust shows your brand’s promise and what you stand for.

Introducing Enhanced Digital Certification – A New Digital Diversity Certification for Suppliers

Enhanced Digital Certification (EDC) is a fast and inexpensive way for small businesses to get certified as a diverse-owned organization while at the same time exposing them to new opportunities afforded by being in the SupplierGATEWAY network.

EDC is gaining widespread acceptance by some of the most prominent advocates of inclusive purchasing – all of whom also seek to create new economic impact at scale. By digitizing and streamlining the diversity certification process, we have made it easier, faster and much less costly to achieve your diversity certification. 

If your business belongs to a small and minority-owned category, EDC is a go-to program for becoming certified as a diverse-owned business. 

Promote Your Business With Certifications

Certifications increase the opportunities for your business to be found and get noticed by buyers. For those looking to expand your market presence with prospects, registering a free account with SupplierGATEWAY gives you access to new business opportunities. Our platform connects you with customers of all sizes – from Fortune 500 companies and globally recognized companies to your local health system, manufacturer or business. Our easy-to-use app will help you stay connected to the opportunities that could make all the difference to your bottom line. 

4 Best Practices To Streamline Supplier Onboarding

Today, more and more companies, especially global ones, have grown their supply base exponentially, which makes the onboarding process more complex than ever. It is becoming common for large companies to have hundreds of thousands of suppliers. But establishing new supplier relationships and managing these new suppliers’ risk profiles can be a problem. 

Despite these constraints, companies are also expected to gain a deeper understanding of supplier activities. The solution to these issues starts from picking the right suppliers to partner with and optimizing the onboarding process.

To effectively manage the process, an organization must master its risk assessment, due diligence and supplier relationship management (SRM), which can be difficult without proper tools and good business operations. The following four best practices are the answers you need to streamline and improve the process.

  1. Mitigate Risk and Fraud From The Beginning:

Carefully assessing and prequalifying your potential suppliers is crucial to avoid any future risks and reduce fraud. To achieve that, having clear communication about your organization’s values and, in turn, if the supplier’s value aligns with yours is a must. You should also certify and verify all pieces of information – categories, insurance, financial information, sub-suppliers, and so on – provided by suppliers.

The SupplierGATEWAY supplier-prequalification app can configure supplier risk questionnaires, standardize workflows and automatically filter suppliers who don’t meet your minimum criteria. Furthermore, you can utilize our Financial Risk Monitoring app to proactively watch for bankruptcy filings, tax clients, late payments and collection fillings within your supply base.

  1. Supplier Self-Service Portal:

As the number of suppliers increases, many organizations are under tremendous pressure to assist and work with suppliers without increasing their staff number. With a self-service portal, your suppliers don’t have to email directly to your team whenever they have a question or need additional information, which has often occurred to organizations managing it manually.

The SupplierGATEWAY self-service portal provides you all the necessary tools to ensure consistency in onboarding new suppliers, regardless of the specific category or the supplier sizes. We help you avoid all these troubles and save your time and money with a simple and efficient supplier-friendly portal. 

  1. Access to The Most Current, Relevant, Validated Information:

To save your time and efforts, collecting all relevant, completed and validated documents from suppliers is necessary. Not doing so can potentially interrupt and harm your business. Also, It’s time-consuming without the help of technology. In other words, we believe standardizing the implementation data is your hassle-free solution.

Fortunately, in the SupplierGATEWAY self-service portal, your suppliers can easily update their contact, company, certifications and product information at any time, which is a win-win for both parties to ensure everything is up-to-date.

  1. Automate, Automate and Automate:

Innovations such as AI and automation are more evolving, particularly in business, in which many organizations have been utilizing technology to streamline their operations. Automation brings considerable benefits to your onboarding process, including greater efficiencies, configuring resources and users, fewer errors and tighter control over your SRM platform. Using automation is part of supplier onboarding best practices.

With more and more increasing problems coming from suppliers, the need for automation is expecting to be higher than ever. That’s a reason why the SupplierGATEWAY supplier management solutions are offered, which enhance your process to be more transparent, robust risk management and make better decisions.

Wrapping it up…

No matter what products or services you offer, it’s essential to build a good and strong business relationship with suppliers through supplier onboarding best practices. By doing so, you will positively impact your business’ success in the long run by increasing opportunities for smart and strategic sourcing. And we’re here to help you speed up building that stronger relationship. Schedule your demo today!