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How supplier management software can make compliance simpler
One of the common pitfalls of ISO certified businesses is supplier management. When external contractors and suppliers are brought into your business it adds an extra element of complexity to your compliance. Your suppliers need to adhere to benchmarks which keep your business meeting its compliance requirements.
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Keeping track of your suppliers can be nothing short of a headache and is something that often falls by the wayside. Putting in place an automated supplier management system is the best way to ensure your business remains compliant and to get the best performance and value from your suppliers.
So, what is supplier management?
Supplier management boils down to three main points:
- Maintaining regular contact – keeping in touch with suppliers throughout their lifecycle with your business
- Evaluating supplier performance – ensuring your suppliers are performing in line with your company’s requirements
- Identifying opportunities for improvement – proactively facilitating improvements in the supplier relationship and processes through training
We’ll look at some of the ways supplier management software can help solve the problems associated with supplier management.
Why do I need supplier management software?
In today’s business environment businesses increasingly rely on external suppliers for essential goods and services. While this allows for a more competitive and dynamic business landscape it also creates potential pitfalls. One of the main risks for ISO and other standard-compliant businesses is ensuring suppliers are in line with compliance requirements.
You need an effective supplier management system to stay compliant.
- Compliance programmes demand readily available information on your business’s approved suppliers and subcontractors
- Suppliers need to know their roles and responsibilities when working with your business
- Suppliers must be trained in relevant processes and documentation
- In order to meet your compliance requirements, you must conduct periodic reviews of your business’s subcontractors and suppliers
Many businesses aren’t able to keep up with updating, reviewing, approving and maintaining their supplier information — and many simply forget all about it. A lot of companies still rely on outdated, cumbersome and time-consuming paper-based information management systems which cause some tasks to slip between the cracks and get missed and others to be duplicated.
“79% of small businesses use digital tools to communicate with suppliers and customers”
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As an ISO certified business, you’re expected to maintain a certain level of quality across all aspects of your operation. This inevitably becomes more complex when you use contractors and suppliers. The procedures and methods used by your suppliers and sub-contractors must comply with the standards to which your business adheres, and keeping track of that information can quickly become a logistical nightmare without an effective supplier management system.
What are the benefits of using supplier management software?
Supplier management software not only ensures that your business uses approved suppliers, it also alleviates the mental load of managing those suppliers. Supplier management software automates many processes and creates a centralised database of contractors. It can also send out automated reminders about audits and training which ensures all your suppliers stay compliant.
Some of the benefits of using supplier management software include:
Managing suppliers and contractors
Keeping a list of approved contractors will streamline your operations and save you from having to examine and analyse new contractors every time you need to outsource a task. With supplier management software you can manage a comprehensive list of your company’s approved contractors.
Auditing suppliers and contractors
Ensure your contractors stay compliant with regular audits. Supplier management software can let you know when your suppliers are due for an audit and directly notify your contractors and suppliers.
Managing training providers
Keep your suppliers trained to the required standard with approved trainers. With supplier management software you can create a single source list of your company’s approved training providers. You can then update and maintain this central list to make supplier training easy and streamlined. You also have the capacity to automatically notify your approved training providers when training is required.
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Mango cloud based supplier management software
Mango is an integrated QHSE compliance management system. One of its many invaluable features is its supplier management system module which provides user-configurable supplier and contractor management.
Mango keeps a central list of approved suppliers and sub-contractors, making it simple to control and use approved vendors. Plus, thanks to advanced system integration Mango allows for cross-linking of information between the human resources and supplier management modules which enables automated training cycles.
Some of Mango’s supplier management features include:
- Rating suppliers and sub-contractors
- Prescribing your own rating categories
- Receiving email reminders for periodic review
- Approving and monitoring external trainers
- Providing employees with approved supplier and sub-contractor details
- Controlling a single database of supplier and sub-contractor information
- Automatic notification of training requirements directly to suppliers and sub-contractors
Find out more about Mango’s supplier management capabilities with this quick video.