When you are manufacturing products, either to sell directly to the public or to sell in a B2B capacity to retailers or resellers, your suppliers are among the most important people in your business ecosystem.
From an administrative perspective, and also a strategic one, you probably spend more time concerned with your supply network than any other entities – often even your customers, as those relationships tend to be less complex.
It’s therefore a good idea to make sure you have the infrastructure in place to keep your dealings with your suppliers as streamlined as possible, and promote smooth, mutually beneficial relationships.
Supplier portals
Supplier portals can be one of the best ways to make managing your supplier relationships simple, transparent and issue free. They give you a
dedicated web system that your business uses to interface with suppliers to perform all of the most common tasks in an easy, time saving way that works brilliantly for both parties.
You can have all kinds of functionality you can provide through the portal to make Purchase Order management, supplier on-boarding, KPI measurement and ECNs as easy as possible, and you can have portals implemented that use underlying SAP technology to give the kind of power you need even when dealing with the most critical supplies.
Companies like weaveability.com can provide powerful SAP supplier portals branded for your business that offer all of these features and benefits, and can be introduced to your business quickly and easily.
Improving supplier relationships with portals
As well as making your own business processes more streamlined, using supplier portals can also help build better relationships with your suppliers.
Firstly, using a portal will save both you and them time, making working with you great for them. Secondly, the extra level of transparency and efficiency that a supplier portal gives sends out a positive message about you as a business.
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Finally, having their own secure area on your portal shows that you value your suppliers. Beyond what the portal itself can represent to the people who use it, you also have the ability to communicate far better when you have this channel available, ensuring that you always respond to suppliers in a consistent, fast and reliable way.
Good communication and strong credibility are important foundations for all of your business relationships, and your supplier portal reinforces all of this.
Getting buy in
Of course, implementing your supplier portal is just part of the route to using it for more streamlined business. You also need to consider how your business processes can be adapted to really leverage the benefits of the portal being in place, and get your suppliers to buy in to using it.
While some may put up resistance to learning and using a new system at first, you can take the initiative and make sure it is as simple as possible for them to log in and use the portal for the first time, and make sure you have people within the business who are available to support them in this.
Investing in a good supplier portal can really help your business get more from your dealings with your all-important suppliers, and getting started can be really simple.
