The key benefits of digital Supplier Management to manage third-party risk

By streamlining corporate governance into a single system, increasing visibility, you're able to be proactive in mitigating risk which enables growth strategies.

Keep reading to learn how Unit4’s Supplier Management module can improve your ability to manage risk with digitized Supplier Management processes – find out the key benefits below.

What is Supplier Management software?

Of course, when you deal with third parties like suppliers there is a natural level of risk that needs to be managed. Unavoidably, the suppliers you engage with will affect your compliance and require keen monitoring through streamlined data processes to improve visibility and decision-making.

Supplier Management software can reduce the weight of manual data tasks – just consider how much data one supplier has, from financial details to contract history, and even other details about the supplier that relates to compliance risk such as questionnaire scores, and the effort it takes to consolidate this data in a useful way.

By bringing all this data into one single system, and allowing digital systems to automate data entry, procurement professionals can spend more time analyzing data and using this analysis to lead their management of risk, boosting compliance.

Supplier Management is just another example of how digital capabilities can be leveraged for efficiency and savings.

The key benefits of Supplier Management software

• Centralized Data – A single source of truth for data is key to make decisions based on real-time information. Analyzing third-party risk is quicker and more efficient, not requiring management of multiple fragmented systems, enabling decisions to be supported by accurate and up-to-date data.
• Monitoring – Digital dashboards enable continuous monitoring of third-party KPIs to provide visibility over potential risk and compliance issues. This can help mitigate risk by giving in-depth data on a supplier, so professionals can identify risk easily and act before it escalates.
• Reporting – Advanced reporting capabilities can keep an entire organization up to date with potential areas of risk, and a digital process enables reports to be generated quickly, and by anyone, reducing data tasks for procurement teams.
• Industry and Compliance Regulations – A digital platform allows you to pre-configure your database to show what’s important to your organization, perhaps who owns the business for DE&I initiatives, or the degree a supplier adheres to your questionnaire.
• Auditing – Avoid the financial and reputational risks associated with poor compliance with standardized policies and procedures built into your operations with automated reports and features.
• Intelligent Questionnaires – When launching new business relationships, supplier management software can design, build, and publish intelligent questionnaires specifically designed to identify areas of risk from inception.
• Identity Management – Authenticate and investigate individuals and companies, which is particularly useful for ESG and DE&I initiatives to identify businesses that may or may not fit with your specific ESG or DE&I goals.
• Document Monitoring – Thanks to integrated data, you can easily monitor whether a supplier’s data and documentation is up-to-date, allowing you to notify the supplier and reduce risk caused by poorly updated data.
• Self-Reporting – Unit4’s Source-to-Contract solution offers a self-reporting feature that allows third parties to conduct their own reports to reduce the resources needed in the risk management process.
• Access Control – A benefit of Cloud software is remote access around the clock. With risk management software you can track, permit, and restrict access where necessary in your business but also have the ability to review and monitor supplier data from anywhere, at any time.

How Unit4 can help you manage risk with our Supplier Management solution

Unit4’s Source-to-Contract platform incorporates a fully integrated Supplier Management module designed to help procurement teams to better monitor third-party risk.

By partnering with Unit4 Source-to-Contract you can automate 65% of the manual data consolidation that comes with in-depth Supplier Management. Automate everything from category-specific supplier onboarding, autoscoring, supplier self-managed profiles, bulk segmented messaging, reminders, and assessment assignments.

With all this data at your fingertips, procurement professionals have the much easier job of monitoring accurate data, meaning they can safeguard the supply chain easily, and catch risk early, using data to lead decisions.

Watch this short demo or talk to sales today to learn more about how Unit4’s Source-to-Contract solution can help you become a procurement center of excellence.