Strategy For Choosing A Vendor Management System
As every business has a unique culture, vendor management systems are faced with a lofty challenge. First, they must be flexible enough to handle a variety of needs but strong enough to enforce business rules. They must be robust enough to connect as a hub to many different systems while keeping sensitive information private.
Custom-made Analytics and Dashboards
The ability to look at data from different angles allows a company to better understand and control their costs. The freedom and flexibility of custom reporting in vendor management software allow users to look at each spend and the rating of each resource to drive dollars where they can be most effective.
"The margins, the communication styles, the approach to relationships, and the success metrics that work for your normal operations likely need to be adapted or overhauled entirely to be successful for your VMS business," says Bob McHugh, Content Marketing Manager at Bullhorn.
The ability to adaptively look at those dynamic success metrics will be the point of success with your VMS.
Handle & Process Requests
Growing companies find that a vendor management system that facilitates requisitions and approval workflows will reduce cycle time and eliminate errors. The idea of running paper forms through the proper channels to get key resources takes key members away from critical tasks. What's more, processing requests through a central system with email notifications and approvals promotes healthy team productivity.
Manage Time, Expenses, Payroll and Invoicing
A vendor management system is more than just a place to bill and invoice. It should include the ability to combine time tracking, expense management, and payroll to see a full story around vendors and resources. It should also help track the work performed and rate on common standards for service level agreements.
Combining these daily tracking systems under a single system increases transparency to one of the largest cost centers in business.
Portals for Vendors to Facilitate Expenses, Invoicing, Reporting and Consolidate Billing
A primary goal in vendor resource management is creating a single source of truth. By retaining all of the key information within a single source, with integrations to key systems, information becomes effortless to track. Allowing vendors portal access to manage their information promotes data integrity and reduces double entry.
Flexibility is Key
Vendor management software should be a central hub for tracking vendors, resources, SLA's, work, rating, and more. It should be flexible enough to allow easy access to your data to find what vendors and resources are performing the best so you can allocate spend accordingly.