Supplier Portal capabilities

The Supplier Portal is a central place for retrieving and placing documents from suppliers, among other things. The system works both ways: on the one hand, the client can offer a document for drawing and on the other hand, the supplier itself can offer a document. 

In the Supplier Portal, the client can indicate which documentation he would like to receive from the supplier. This information varies in nature, for example, specific company data or ISO certificates.

The Supplier Portal is used for a variety of purposes. For example, a document from a supplier may be needed, or the NAW data may need to be verified by the supplier itself.

1. Requesting supplier documentation in the Supplier Portal.
Currently, the Supplier Portal is mainly used by our customers for the exchange of documentation. A good example is the use of the Supplier Portal as a tool in the pre-qualification process. For example, before contracting a supplier, you want the supplier to have signed the store terms and conditions, show the latest annual report, upload the ISO certificates, and complete a questionnaire on how many employees are employed and whether the company complies with laws and regulations. All this documentation can be requested and uploaded in the Supplier Portal.

Example of requesting supplier documentation
One of our customers uses the Supplier Portal to verify that its suppliers are a healthy organization. Also, suppliers of this client must be able to prove that the client is not responsible for more than 20% of the supplier's turnover. This is to prevent a supplier from becoming too dependent on the client. This information is pre-verified and requested in the Supplier Portal as part of the pre-qualification process.

2. Complaint handling in the Supplier Portal
In the Supplier Portal, complaints can also be handled from the client to the supplier or vice versa. This is especially applicable for production companies. When some products are delivered damaged, this complaint can be entered into the Supplier Portal with the question of what can be done about it.

3. Sourcing with the Supplier Portal
Finally, the Supplier Portal can be used for the sourcing process, which involves requesting quotes from a number of parties in order to finally award the contract to one supplier.

For example, if ten laptops are to be purchased for an order, you can use the Supplier Portal to ask a number of suppliers to quote the best price for this order. Here you can also add a questionnaire so that suppliers can provide additional information such as warranty agreements.

4. Automatically renew documentation
Often at the beginning of a contract, suppliers are required to demonstrate that they are ISO certified. This documentation is neatly uploaded, but automatically expires after two years and is then not requested again.

By storing this documentation in the Supplier Portal, you will automatically be notified when certain certifications are about to expire. You can then send an automatic e-mail to the supplier in question asking him to renew his documentation at the click of a button.

It is also possible to send a wish from Supplier Portal to multiple e-mail addresses simultaneously.

The organizations using the Supplier Portal are often “mature” organizations that also already use software for contract management, spend and vendor rating. The Supplier Portal then gives these organizations tools to structure documentation requests and better select suppliers.