by Angela Sarno

VP Marketing

Vendor Management Appreciation Day (We Invented a Holiday)

Holidays that we hear about a lot: Christmas, Halloween, Hanukkah. Even National Donut Day makes the list.

What about Vendor Management Appreciation Day? Haven’t heard of it? That’s because it didn’t exist. Until now.

This is a first-of-its-kind holiday dedicated to honoring and elevating the critical work performed by vendor management teams.

The Origin of Vendor Management Appreciation Day

#1 Low Recognition and Pay for High Responsibility

#2 Vendor Desk Staff Working Around the Clock

#3 Untapped Potential for Vendor Desk to Become a Profit Center

#4 Wasted Opportunities to Advance Strategic Initiatives

What We’re Doing About It: Vendor Management Appreciation Day

The Origin of Vendor Management Appreciation Day

How did Vendor Management Appreciation Day come to be? After years of working with organizations we observed a few uncomfortable, yet all-too-common problems.

It’s time that we acknowledge them out loud and take strong action. We’re willing to bet these will sound familiar and that you too have seen firsthand what vendor teams have to endure.

#1 Low Recognition and Pay; High Responsibility and Stress

Vendor desk teams are expected to take on an inordinate amount of responsibility and risk for the amount of recognition and compensation they receive.

In other words, the work of vendor desk staff, such as accounts payable specialists, supplier information managers, and procurement specialists, goes largely undervalued and unnoticed.

Yet, much like the guards protecting the gold at Fort Knox, vendor desk workers are responsible for guarding their organization’s money.

Debra Richardson, AP vendor setup and maintenance expert, sums up this problem perfectly.

As Debra alluded, vendor desk staff have to protect against fraudsters who are continually finding new, more insidious ways to capitalize on the busy day and minds of vendor desk staff and scam them out of money.

Consider these startling facts

First, in 2022, there were $10.3 billion in victim losses from cybercrimes, up from $6.9 billion in 2021. And that’s just from cases that were reported (2022 FBI Internet Crime Report).

Next, 53% of organizations that experienced attempted and/or actual payments fraud reported that the fraud was due to Business Email Compromise, or BEC (2023 Payments Fraud and Control Survey).

As an example, a fraudster might email an organization posing as a vendor and request a change to their banking or contact information. Our network data shows that at least 30% of an active vendor list makes a change to their information every year.

Fraudsters know this is a common occurrence and exploit it to reroute funds to their account. They also know that vendor teams have so much to do during the day that they may see a seemingly legitimate email and approve the requested change quickly so that they can move on.

At PaymentWorks, we believe it’s long overdue to bring to light the work that vendor management staff do and the immense value they bring to organizations of all types and sectors.

That’s why we invented Vendor Management Appreciation Day.

#2 Vendor Desk Staff Working Around the Clock

The way that many management teams view their vendor management staff is inaccurate. Grossly inaccurate.

Below are a few quotes that vendor desk workers have told us they’ve heard from higher-ups in their organization.

Vendor management is just typing and data entry.
We can hire someone inexpensive for this vendor desk role.
The vendor desk is always behind. I don’t understand why this payment was late.
Just give the invoice to AP. They can do everything.

Unfortunately, those attitudes among management teams are common. When leadership is so far removed from the vendor management function, they fail to appreciate what the vendor desk truly does.

Want a more accurate picture of what working in vendor management looks like?

Working 16-18 hours/day.
Doing work on vacation, weekends, anniversary trips, days off.
Taking on multiple roles–AP Manager, Clerk, AP Specialist, admin, chase-it-down person, drive-things-to-FedEx person.

Of course, this doesn’t represent every single vendor management professional’s experience. However, it’s a much more accurate snapshot of the workload that vendor desk workers face than management teams realize.

Here’s a quote from an anonymous professional about what it really takes to run a successful vendor desk:

“You have to have brains to analyze what you’re doing. It’s almost to the level of a Financial Analyst who [can] dissect something and understand how important it is to do it right from the very beginning all the way up through.

Yet, [management] wants to be able to go out and sell things and not think of every detail that comes into it.”

More quotes from this person will be featured in our upcoming podcast episode. Stay tuned!

To sum up, it’s past time for vendor management teams to be recognized, appreciated, and compensated accordingly.

#3 Untapped Potential for Vendor Desk to Become a Profit Center

Vendor management, when implemented effectively, has the potential to evolve from a cost center to a profit center within an organization.

Traditionally (cough, ignorantly, cough) seen as an administrative function focused on reducing expenses and ensuring compliance, strategic vendor management practices can unlock many avenues for generating revenue and driving profitability.

With the proper time and brain space to think strategically, vendor management teams can turn their function into a profit center:

Negotiating favorable terms: Few teams outside of vendor management realize this: The vendor desk team has leverage with vendors. Once favorable contract terms are finalized, vendor desk teams ensure that payment is tied to those pre-negotiated terms. What does that mean? A positive impact on your organization’s bottom line.
Identifying cost-saving opportunities: Second, vendor managers can identify cost-saving opportunities. This might include consolidating vendors, streamlining processes, and curbing maverick spend. After all, cost-saving opportunities exist from tip to tail.
Measuring vendor performance incentives: Next, the vendor desk team can motivate vendors to provide better, more competitive service to an organization. For example, procurement staff can negotiate performance-based incentives with vendors to get them to achieve specific targets or exceed expectations. In turn, vendor managers ensure that their organization doesn’t pay vendors until those targets are hit.
Monetizing vendor relationships: Finally, when vendor desk teams cultivate strong relationships with vendors, payment optimization–the strategic management of payment processes and methods to maximize efficiency, cost savings, and financial rewards for both the organization and vendors–becomes not only possible, but probable.

#4 Wasted Opportunities to Advance Strategic Initiatives

The point of Vendor Management Appreciation Day is to shed light on the immense value that the vendor desk can bring to an organization.

That is, when the vendor desk isn’t overworked, underpaid, and unnoticed.

At our recent live event, we posted a question panel of finance and vendor desk professionals what contributions their team could make to their organization.

If every process in your vendor management strategy were optimized and all tasks were up to date, what activities or thoughts would you engage in? What kind of data would you gather? What initiatives would you advance?

In sum, here’s what our panelists said they would do once they reach their ideal state in vendor management. By the way, that’s something Vendor Management Appreciation Day can help you achieve:

First, team growth and loyalty. Most of the time, our panelists have to extinguish daily fires or just try to keep up with day-to-day, high-pressure demands. But when their strategy is optimized, they want to strengthen their own teams. When a stronger, more engaged team is running a vendor management strategy, the entire organization thrives.
Second, supplier diversity. Implementing a supplier diversity program is something many vendor teams want to do. But a successful program requires reliable data about spending on diverse businesses across industries, geographies, and federal and state levels. This is doable. But only when the vendor desk is freed up from the manual tasks of vendor onboarding.
Third, sustainability efforts. Finally, the vendor desk team has a lot of power in helping an organization achieve sustainability and social responsibility goals. When their day-to-day tasks are streamlined, they’ll have time and energy to form strategic partnerships with sustainability-focused vendors.

What We’re Doing About It: Vendor Management Appreciation Day

We’ve talked a lot about the problems that we’ve seen vendor desk teams have to endure for years. And now, it’s time for less talking and more action.

Enter Vendor Management Appreciation Day!

This is a six-month celebration ending on December 12, 2023, the official Vendor Management Appreciation Day.

These six months are designed to help your organization increase the efficiency, compliance, and profitability of your vendor management strategy.

Here’s what that looks like:

A free vendor management resource every month. Each month’s resource is a tool designed with intentional progression–to help you audit your current process, make realistic changes, measure your results, and ensure your vendor management strategy is a success for years to come.
Information-packed interviews on how to protect against payments fraud, advocate for support for the vendor desk, turn the vendor desk into a profit center, and more.
Lots of surprises. Since this is the inaugural celebration of Vendor Management Appreciation Day, you can expect some fun things. Swag? Awards? Shoutouts on social media with relatable gifs? You’ll have to wait and see.

Great news! Your first tool of VMAD is ready. Check out the Write it Down Template here.