Vendor Onboarding in 2023: Three Predictions

If your vendor master file is built on a crappy foundation, then a lot of garbage is going to make its way in.  When garbage makes its way in, garbage feeds your P2P systems, your business processes and your functions. Yes, your entire organization.

Ensuring the vendor master data is pristine is a big job, and it’s complicated by multiple pressure points around compliance and preservation of working capital. 

Look again at the illustration. If you have a broken foundation letting in all sorts of information that may or may not be accurate, the bad data flows out to:

• Risk – affecting documented compliance for insurance needs
• Finance -affecting your organization’s cash flow 
• Procurement – muddling reporting on managed vs maverick spend
• Compliance/External -uncertainty about doing business with anyone on a sanctions list
• Compliance/ Internal – lack of clarity on diverse and ESG spend
• Business Units – confusion around vendor contact data
• HR – no support for determination of contractor vs. employee status

… just to start!

Someone has to make that happen.

It’s time to re-think the role of the vendor desk.

Review the list above while you think about who you have tasked with making sure your data is true and accurate. What tools have your provided? What support? Does this person understand the business implications organization-wide of good vs. bad vendor master data?

Or to be more blunt: have you invested proportionately in training and tools to make this person a success?

My questions are rhetorical. I already know the answers, and they aren’t positive.

The majority of finance and procurement teams also know the answer too. They know the person charged with gatekeeping the financial system is usually left to sort through vendor onboarding processes and procedures alone. Often with little clarity about what is at stake, and even less support to ensure they get each piece of the data exactly right. They know these people are under enormous pressure to move as fast as possible, while also being as accurate as possible. 

This results in a Sisyphean task in front of them where the boulder grows bigger and the hill steeper with each passing day.

We’ll end our 2023 vendor master predictions series with a challenge to you. Look at what you are asking of your vendor desk personnel. Is what you have asked of them matched by their salary? Their decision-making authority? Their organizational-impact?  

Probably not.

It’s time to re-think your investment in the management of your vendor master file. Your entire organization depends on getting it right.

Read Part 1: The Final Manual Hold Out in P2P Will Finally Demand to Be Automated

Read Part 2: Filling the knowledge gaps: who are you doing business with?