Among all areas of the supply chain, the vendor onboarding process is one that is particularly due for improvement.

A couple of decades ago, onboarding was highly personalized, with staff having to physically meet with vendors to negotiate and discuss products. That was followed by the completion of documentation and sharing of information prior to vendors presenting products on their websites. Over time, the process has become increasingly digital, with data protection laws changing the way that information is shared, and automation becoming more prevalent.

Prior to the introduction of automation, one of the biggest challenges to vendor onboarding was simply the time it took. To put a product into an online store, you had to create a vendor record, add the relevant information to an enterprise resource planning application and manage changes to contact information over time. There was a significant risk of making mistakes in the onboarding process, from typos to crucial missing elements.

Automation has, through a variety of methods, transformed and simplified the process. Forms can be implemented, and data pulled from multiple sources, automatically. Instead of having to complete all tasks themselves, employees become responsible for quality assurance and checking that all processes are working properly on their own. This shift toward oversight means that the vendor onboarding process is significantly speeded up, allowing buyers to spend more time building relationship with vendors instead of focusing on administrative tasks.

Following are some of the many parts of the vendor onboarding process that can be automated, to increase efficiency and save on costs. 

Vendor onboarding, registration and authentication. Registering, onboarding and authenticating yourself as a vendor no longer requires active human intervention. Through a series of forms for registration and the use of artificial intelligence in the authentication process, companies get vendors on board without increasing labor costs.

Changing vendor details. Having accurate vendor details is essential, but it doesn’t need to be done manually. Through a system that requires only a vendor-side form to correct information, companies remove the manual part of creating vendor details and accounts.

Document information extraction. Documents for communicating with vendors can range from simple memos to complex contracts. Rather than reading through jargon for hours on end, AI tools can scan through a document and simplify it, pulling out the most important facts and figures for the reader.

Digital product catalog. This is an online asset that shows all of your products to clients on a website, but you don’t need to add them to the site yourself. Your vendors can use automated systems to host your products with relative ease, saving them time and making working with you as simple and positive an experience as possible.
 Supply chain automation makes supplier onboarding much faster, in addition to freeing up the personal time of staff members to looking after vendors. And that leads to better relationships up and down the supply chain.

Working with an outside provider of a supplier onboarding platform can help. By learning what your vendors want, then turning to an expert consultant for the implementation phase, you can automate processes with a deeper level of understanding, and ensure the success of your initiative.

Feroz Khan is co-founder of Bluestonex