B2B Supplier Portal

B2B Supplier Portal software provids both Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functions to help you improve processes with customers and suppliers by adapting to Your Business.

B2B Supplier Portal manages the communication process with suppliers including: purchase orders, change orders, purchase order confirmations, Kanban replenishment orders, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) visibility, supplier performance reporting, and payment notification. B2B Supplier Portal reduces costs and lead times by letting buyers manage by exception, and by improving supplier performance by capturing information not available in ERP systems. B2B Supplier Portal is applicable for both direct material and MRO orders, across multiple plants or ERP systems.

Buyer Productivity

B2B Connex vendor portal functionality can be used to publish documents such as purchase orders. Suppliers are notified by email of the new order. B2B Supplier Portal sends out email reminders to ensure a timely acknowledgement from the supplier. The buyer doesn't have to waste time chasing suppliers to verify purchase order delivery. Suppliers view the order through web pages and can take actions to acknowledge, accept, request a change, or reject the order. Buyers are immediately notified of the supplier's actions and can review any change requests from the supplier immediately through a web page.

If the buyer approves a change, the information is sent to the ERP system without the buyer having to edit the order on the ERP system. B2B Supplier Portal captures otherwise unavailable supplier performance statistics such as supplier response time for a purchase order, and percentage of orders negotiated or rejected, which are not available on the ERP system. This information is valuable to the buyer for supplier performance reviews. The amount of administrative time a buyer spends on supplier communication is significantly reduced, and the buyer has more time for strategic activities.

Invoices Match Purchase Orders

Both the buyer and supplier can view the most recent version of a purchase order electronically over the web - with no conflicting information from old faxes or emails. Issues are settled faster, price/quantity/ship date is finalized quickly, the ERP system is updated, and invoices match purchase orders. You're ready for Evaluated Receipts Settlement (ERS).

Sales Orders

B2B Connex can be used as a customer portal to publish your Sales Orders online. Your customer is able see their orders when they are entered to verify products, quantities and prices. This information can be verified and accepted prior to production to ensure there are no misunderstandings. In addition, a change notification is sent to the customer to keep them informed when your scheduling updates the delivery date. Keeping your customers in the loop means that the information that everyone needs is available when they need it.

Kanban Orders

Kanban replenishment signals can be sent from factory floor to B2B Supplier Portal either through a scanner, a mouse click on a PC, or another activation method. An email is sent out to the supplier with reminders to ensure a timely acknowledgement. Supplier requests for changes can be incorporated into the process if desired as well as the Kanban signal triggering a purchase order. The Kanban order is sent to the supplier faster, acknowledgements are tracked, and there is a visual indicator to the buyer if there is a problem with the order that requires attention.

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)

Whether you are sending inventory information, or more sophisticated MRP information to your suppliers, you want to ensure they receive it and it is up-to-date. B2B Supplier Portal can deliver this information through email and web pages so your suppliers do not incur onsite costs to gather the information. Information sent to the suppliers is immediately acknowledged, and if suppliers have issues with the information, there is a visual indicator for buyers, planners, and production personnel.

Reduce Cycle Time

With pressure from your customers to improve cycle times, you are looking for greater responsiveness from your suppliers. And you are still looking for incremental inventory reductions to save costs. The traditional process of sending out faxes, particularly for rush orders doesn't provide the productivity or optimal speed. It can easily take 24 hours for a rush fax order to be acknowledged. Consequently, buyers manually intervene to accelerate the process. B2B Supplier Portal provides the mechanism for immediate delivery, to multiple supplier personnel, with an acknowledgement back in minutes.

Reduce Telephone Time Costs

Whether it's your order desk or your payables department, too much money is spent to communicate with your partners. Distributors and sister plants call the order desk to confirm orders sent, find out an order status, and get an update on inventory. Suppliers and sister plants call to confirm you received the goods, and find out about payment status. In both cases the bulk of the information is in your ERP system.

B2B Supplier Portal provides email and web page updates, so that suppliers and sister plants can view received goods status and payment status, without having to call your accounts payable department. Similarly, order acknowledgement, order status and inventory status can be provided to distributors and sister plants. Inbound telephone calls from suppliers to your accounts payable and order entry departments are reduced.

The communication of this information can be further automated through the use of B2B Connex Direct software, which enables electronic files to be sent to, or from, your partners computer systems.