The Vendor Management System (VMS) Buyer’s Guide 2023

So before we dive into the intricacies of a vendor management system, its features, and the benefits, let’s start with the basics.

What is a Vendor Management System?

A vendor management system, or VMS, is a cloud-based software that helps businesses manage and collaborate with suppliers and provides a centralized platform to store all supplier data. It provides tools for onboarding suppliers, monitoring their performance, and ensuring compliance.

Why do you need Vendor Management System (VMS)?

Vendor management is key to the success of any procurement team, and using the best vendor management system helps you make the most of your supplier relationship. From supplier qualification to onboarding to allowing them to create & manage catalogs to capture supplier performance, a cloud-based vendor management system like Kissflow Procurement Cloud comes with loads of benefits.

Here are some of the other advantages of having a vendor management system:

• A successful vendor relationship management initiative enables minimal expenditure of resources, both personnel and financial
• On-time delivery of goods and services
• Customer relationships improve too, as you deliver consistent results
• Vendor management system brings consistency and efficiency into the end-to-end processes involved
• You can analyze vendor performance with custom reports and KPIs. All this with zero manual effort
• Optimize the procurement process for maximum productivity.

Vendor management system capabilities in Kissflow Procurement Cloud 

Here’s what a system like Kissflow Procurement Cloud offers you in terms of vendor management capabilities.

Supplier self-service

Suppliers can manage their catalogs and other information by themselves, and so can you.

Supplier registration

Have suppliers provide registration details without having them log into Kissflow Procurement Cloud.

Supplier onboarding

Onboard suppliers with detailed information such as remittance details, payment terms, shipping terms, certificates, financials, and more.

Supplier rating

Rate your suppliers based on several factors such as timely delivery, product quality, and more.

Avoid duplications

Avoid onboarding the same supplier more than once & maintain good master data hygiene.

Supplier categorization

Map suppliers to one or many categories by leveraging pre-populated UNSPSC standards.

Effective controls

Configure granular details such as access controls of the supplier’s users, 3 way or 2-way matching type, PO transmission mode, PO transmission method, invoice limits, & more.

Why you should choose a comprehensive procurement software over a standalone Vendor Management System?

While a standalone Vendor Management System is effective at everything to do with suppliers, it is more or less disconnected from the overall procurement process and operates in silos. For this reason, it is always wiser to go with a comprehensive procurement software like Kissflow Procurement Cloud that has all the functionalities from source-to-pay.

Some of the benefits of adopting a procure-to-pay software like Kissflow are as follows.

• Better vendor relationship management
• Centralized system for purchase requisitions, invoice payments, billing information, contracts, and all other procurement processes
• Unified platform to qualify, manage and analyze the performance of vendors
• Transparent purchase requisition, purchase order, and approval process
• Better compliance management and visibility into spend
• Seamless integration with the other tools in the company
• Availability of records for audit trails
• Ability to make informed decisions about the choice of vendors

While a standalone vendor management tool is good, an end-end procurement platform like Kissflow Procurement Cloud take things up a notch, bridging the gap between various procurement functions, and streamlining purchasing as a whole. If you’re still not sure, request a free demo of Kissflow Procurement Cloud to see how well it can address your procurement team’s vendor management needs.