3 Ways to Speed Up Supplier Onboarding

Onboarding suppliers — the process of gathering all the necessary information and documents for supplier approval — is a crucial but cumbersome task. Often, supplier onboarding is a month-long process. And for bigger companies, it could take additional time, dragging on for half a year.

Whether 30 days or six months, the real delays come from the tedious, manual verification of supplier data and documentation, like ISO certifications, bank details, and tax records. Despite the hassle, this due diligence is critical to ensure new suppliers meet all the legal, compliance, and company-specific requirements.

You know the drill. As the buying organization, you reach out requesting information, and the supplier responds with the necessary data. It’s a manual back and forth process that’s time consuming for both parties.

For suppliers, it means answering the same questions on different forms. For you, it translates to a mountain of paperwork and data to keep track of, not to mention the murky visibility across your supply chain and supplier relationships. And each new partner introduces risks, ranging from data security to compliance issues.

Imagine if you could navigate these hurdles more smoothly? In this blog, we’ll unveil three key strategies to accelerate your supplier onboarding process, while managing risk at the same time. 

Manage Data, Tasks, and Teams in One Place

With a central network, you have a single location where you can more easily keep track of your data, tasks, and teams. It’s easier for internal stakeholders to upload and organize contracts and legal documents in one place rather than trying to manage supplier information that’s dispersed across different folders, systems, and spreadsheets.

The Graphite network makes it easy for potential partners to create supplier profiles and then share their company details multiple times with buyer connections across the network. No need to complete a new vendor onboarding questionnaire for each organization.

Buyers can post opportunities and during the supplier evaluation process, discover small, diverse businesses they may not have known existed without the network.

Automate Manual Work to Boost Efficiency

By automating repetitive manual processes, you can speed up supplier onboarding and be more efficient overall. With Graphite, you can leverage a library of baseline questionnaires that can be customized based on your unique business rules and practices. These automated onboarding surveys make it easier to collect the specific supplier data you need.

Need to gather more information? Configure your surveys to trigger workflows that collect any additional data and documents your business requires. More advanced configurations would include automatically flagging anything that doesn’t meet your business requirements for a future risk review.

Validate Data to Mitigate Risk

Enabling suppliers to update and manage their own data through self-service portals will streamline your workflow and create a more efficient procurement team. This set-up means that you, the buyer, don’t have to chase down additional or updated information, simplifying the process for all involved parties. Suppliers only fill out one questionnaire, with their responses securely stored in their company profile. 

Why not take it a step further? Implement an automated system that analyzes and verifies the accuracy of this self-reported data to potentially reduce supplier onboarding time from months to just days.

The Graphite system validates key commercial data like Tax Identification Numbers (TIN), banking details, OFAC status, and W-9 forms to ensure that you’re always working with the most up-to-date, high-quality information. This approach not only accelerates the onboarding process but also guarantees you’re collaborating with the best suppliers while managing risk.

Enhance Visibility, Speed, and Efficiency

Put these three things into place—a central network, automation tools, and validated data—and you’ll experience faster supplier onboarding and enhanced supplier relationship management. Graphite can help you with each of these components–all in one, comprehensive solution.

Learn how one Fortune 500 customer cut supplier onboarding time to 10 days with Graphite.