Vendor Management

Overview #

Vendor Management gives your team one workspace to evaluate, approve and manage the vendors you rely on. Move vendors through your own evaluation steps, keep their compliance documents reviewed and current, log and resolve issues, and keep every conversation about a vendor in one place.

Vendor Management is a paid add-on for the Basic, Pro and Premium plans. It is a separate subscription on top of your plan and is not available on Free.

For a step-by-step walkthrough, from designing your workflow to what your vendor sees, see How to Evaluate Your Vendors with ScopeMatch.

When to Use It #

Use Vendor Management when:

1. You want a clear, repeatable evaluation process for new and existing vendors.
2. You need vendors’ certifications, audits and insurance certificates reviewed and kept up to date.
3. You want to catch expired or expiring documents before they cause a problem.
4. You need one place to log and resolve vendor issues such as late deliveries or quality problems.
5. Several people on your team share the work of evaluating and approving vendors.

Step-by-Step Guide #

1. Get access
   • In your subscription settings, find the Vendor Management Module card and select Purchase Vendor Management. You can also contact us and we’ll set it up for you.
   • The person who purchases the module automatically becomes its Admin. Add the rest of your team under Team (see below).
2. Open the workspace
   • Use the workspace switcher and choose Vendor Management.
   • Only members of your Vendor Management team can open it.
3. Dashboard: See where every evaluation stands at a glance.
   • Go to Vendor Management > Dashboard.
   • Review vendors by workflow stage and by risk, the evaluation funnel, incidents by severity and type, upcoming document expiries, and each assignee’s workload.
4. Evaluation Workflow: Move every vendor through the same clear steps, so nothing is skipped.
   • Go to Vendor Management > Evaluation Workflow.
   • Vendors appear as cards in workflow stages. Drag a card to move the vendor to the next stage.
   • Evaluations can be for Inventory, Customer Requested, Re-Evaluation or Project.
   • To set up your own process, open Customize Workflows. Create, duplicate, archive or delete workflows, and give each stage a name, colour, description, checklist items and required documents.
5. All Vendors: Keep everything about a vendor in one profile.
   • Go to Vendor Management > All Vendors. Search by company name; former company names are searchable too.
   • Open a vendor to see its Vendor Profile. On the Checklist tab, tick off the stage’s checklist items and see how many required documents are still outstanding.
   • Set the vendor’s risk rating (Low, Medium or High) based on your own assessment.
   • Use the Internal Notes tab for comments that stay on your side, and the Discussion & Feedback tab for shared discussion. Documents and incidents have their own comment threads too.
   • The profile also lists the supply or distribution lists the vendor appears in, with buttons to view them.
6. Documents: Keep compliance documents reviewed and current.
   • Go to Vendor Management > Documents.
   • Upload a document and choose its type: Certification, Audit, Insurance Certificate, Product/Service Catalog or Technical Document.
   • Set an expiry date, and archive documents you no longer need.
   • On the Document Review page, give each document a status: New, Pending Review, Approved, Rejected or Changes Requested.
7. Expiry Alerts: Catch expired documents before they become a problem.
   • Go to Vendor Management > Expiry Alerts.
   • See documents that have expired or expire within the next 30 days.
   • With one click, send the vendor an in-app notification asking for an updated document.
8. Incidents: Log vendor issues and see them through to resolution.
   • Go to Vendor Management > Incidents.
   • Log an incident with its type (Late Delivery, Quality, Missing Items, Documentation or Other) and severity (Low, Medium or High).
   • Assign an owner, add attachments, move it from New to In Progress to Resolved, and record the resolution.
9. Invitation Links: Bring a vendor straight into the right workflow.
   • Go to Vendor Management > Invitation Links.
   • Create a shareable link with a title and description. Each link is tied to one of your workflows.
   • A vendor who opens the link finishes company onboarding first, then joins that workflow.
   • See totals for your links: active links, link views, workflow joins and new sign-ups.
10. Team: Share the work and control who can do what.
    • Go to Vendor Management > Team.
    • Add one member or several at once, and give each a role: Admin, Manager, Reviewer or Viewer.
11. Inquiries (for vendors): See which buyers are evaluating your company.
    • If your company is being evaluated by a buyer, your organization admin can go to Inquiries under Your Organization to see which buyers are evaluating you.
    • This view does not require the Vendor Management add-on.

Best Practices & Tips #

Do: #

1. Set required documents per stage in Customize Workflows, so each vendor’s checklist shows exactly what is still missing.
2. Check Expiry Alerts regularly and ask vendors for updates before documents lapse.
3. Keep internal and shared comments separate: Internal Notes for your side only, Discussion & Feedback for shared discussion.
4. Keep risk ratings and documents up to date. Network Atlas uses Vendor Management data for its risk scores.

Don’t: #

1. Treat a vendor’s risk rating as automatic. It is the rating your team sets, so review it when things change.
2. Leave incidents open after they are fixed. Record the resolution so the history stays useful.

FAQs #

• Which plans can use Vendor Management?
  • It is a paid add-on for Basic, Pro and Premium. It is not available on Free. Purchase it from your subscription settings or contact us.
• Who on my team can use it?
  • Members of your Vendor Management team. The purchaser automatically becomes Admin, and team members can be Admin, Manager, Reviewer or Viewer.
• How are vendors told about expiring documents?
  • From Expiry Alerts, you can send the vendor an in-app notification asking for an update.
• Can vendors see my internal notes?
  • No. Internal Notes stay on your side. Use Discussion & Feedback for shared discussion.
• How does it connect with other features?
  • A vendor’s profile shows the supply and distribution lists it appears in. In your supply lists, a vendor’s card shows its Vendor Management status: workflow, stage, risk, incidents, and expired or expiring documents. Network Atlas (Pro and Premium) uses Vendor Management data for its risk scores, and Network Analysis on Premium is enriched with Vendor Management data.