4 Ways Vendor Management Software Can Make Your Job Easier

Vendor management involves a lot of moving pieces. You have contracts to review, risk and performance metrics to monitor, vendor information to organize… and tracking it all on a spreadsheet just doesn’t do the job.

You need a smarter way to manage your data and make sure you’re maintaining reliable third-party relationships. That’s where a dedicated vendor management software solution can significantly simplify your efforts.

Market Journal reports that enterprises are increasingly adopting cloud-based vendor management software to take advantage of streamlined processes and lower costs.

Let’s look at a few specific benefits you can gain from upgrading to a vendor management system:

1. Boost Efficiency

Why waste time on administrative busywork when you could quickly organize, access, and monitor vendor information and interactions?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to vendor management—every relationship is unique. A customizable software platform lets you adapt your activities to each situation and maximize your oversight into every partnership. Plus, you’ll have a hassle-free way to stay on top of your to-do list with automatic alerts and task reminders so you can focus on what’s important.

What’s more, shifting all your vendor management efforts to a single web-based platform means no need to maintain expensive infrastructure and less time spent updating and organizing documentation.

2. Increase Transparency

How well do you really know your vendors? Ongoing due diligence in the areas of business continuity, information security, performance, reputation, compliance, and other categories is important for proactively gauging and reducing risk. But it’s also difficult to manage on your own without a support system.

A full-featured vendor management solution should provide built-in third-party oversight with risk assessments, vendor scoring, and due diligence questionnaires. These tools enhance visibility into the full vendor management lifecycle and help prevent service failures.

3. Stay Compliant

Assessing and tracking vendors’ compliance with regulatory or legal requirements is another item on the vendor management to-do list — one that can result in costly penalties if neglected.

Vendor management software automates much of the compliance monitoring process with reporting tools that provide evidence of compliance for major regulatory bodies such as the FDIC, NCUA, and OCC, among others. Compliance reporting not only provides management with a reference point, but also meets the needs of auditors during compliance examinations.

4. Consolidate Documentation

Sorting through paperwork, spreadsheets, and other digital files across multiple computers every time you need to chase down a piece of vendor information wastes your valuable time.

A centralized digital database of contracts, financials, and other third-party information ensures you can find what you need when you need it. Plus, you can access important data from anywhere you have an internet connection.

Time to upgrade your vendor management system?

Recent research from Gartner estimates that “organizations spend an average of 62% of their technology budgets on vendor products, services, and outsourcing.” ¹

Has your organization made a good investment in vendor partnerships? How do you know?

If you’re looking for a better way to track, manage, and analyze vendor risk and performance, it may be time to consider a dedicated software solution.

Download our Vendor Management Software Buyer’s Guide to get started.

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