Vendor Manager

Somebody should be keeping score on your suppliers, and now somebody is.

Your Vendor Manager measures every supplier the same way, every period: did they deliver on time, did they deliver everything, was it right when it arrived, and how did they behave when something went wrong. Four numbers, the same four each quarter, so the trend actually means something.

It watches the date that costs you money. Not the renewal date. The notice date, which is usually thirty or sixty days earlier and is the last day you could have said no. Miss it and the contract renews, at the new price, whether or not you wanted it. This seat tells you while you still have a choice.

Price increases become a conversation. A supplier's increase letter arrives with the annual cost worked out and the alternatives named, instead of arriving as a slightly larger invoice three months later that nobody questions.

It names the supplier you cannot lose. The one who is your only source for something, or who quietly became a third of your spend. That is worth knowing before they have a bad quarter, not after.

Every problem lands in the right file. When a delivery is late or a box is short, it goes into that vendor's record automatically. At renewal you are not trying to remember whether they have been good. You can see it.

For the handful of suppliers that really matter, it prepares a short review pack: the scores, the incidents, what you spend, and the two or three things worth asking for.

Works with whatever systems hold your purchase orders and your bills.