Picture this: you’ve just implemented a new procurement suite solution. Sourcing is smoother than ever, payments are secure and on time, contracts are all in one place, and you know who’s spending what and where. However, you’re still manually calling or emailing suppliers piecemeal to verify information, make sure they’re compliant, ensure they meet certification requirements, or check if their contact information is still correct.
Having source-to-pay (S2P) software without the integration of a supplier data enrichment tool is like having your cake and not eating it too. The good news is that procurement no longer has to choose between the quality and quantity of procurement software in their tool kit.
Enter TealBook’s Supplier Data Platform. It seamlessly integrates with broader suite solutions to autonomously maintain supplier data, power e-procurement technology, drive supplier diversity, and enable supplier performance.
Examining existing S2P systems
JAGGAER, for example, is a robust source-to-pay software solution that automates procurement processes and collects data (in one virtual place) that’s needed to track supplier performance and speed up business transactions. However, without recurring autonomous data cleansing, supplier information entered into the system can become outdated, leading to inaccurate or even poor decision-making—like the old adage says: garbage in, garbage out.
Even if your data is clean, S2P software can only aggregate platform data and won’t look for external data, missing an entire critical data set. As a result, buyers aren’t taking advantage of thousands of additional useful external data points.
While most solutions rely on data being solely derived from a supplier network or ERP, TealBook’s machine learning algorithms use hundreds of sources of data to identify and predict the most appropriate values for a supplier record. This includes a supplier’s location, size, offerings, certificates, qualifications, and more.
Most S2P solutions are not built to support or take advantage of external data signals and, in many cases, S2P providers have no plans to add this functionality. They also cannot quickly onboard and recommend suppliers using machine learning that would otherwise pick up on buyer preferences and company goals, such as supplier diversity and sustainability.
S2P users are also not well-positioned to take advantage of their own databases. They cannot easily classify existing small and diverse suppliers or discover whether suppliers’ certifications have expired; TealBook does this automatically, completely removing the need to manually collect certificates. TealBook users can identify suppliers they’ve worked with that are diverse, but not officially certified, and allow suppliers to self-certify within our platform. In other words, being able to quickly classify suppliers in an existing database means quickly knowing whether KPIs have been reached.
Having a better way to manage your supplier data and knowing the information is up-to-date can help your organization hit goals sooner than expected. For example, while you may have assumed that there was still a long way to go to meet diversity targets, better data may indicate you’re already working with enough suppliers that qualify as diverse for you to have met your goals. Buyers can also discover they have not met targets despite having thought they did or realize they have been partnering with underperforming or sanctioned suppliers.
Partnering for procurement possibilities
S2P software like JAGGAER, in combination with a tool like TealBook, that can provide instantaneous, strong supplier data allows users to strategize their supplier network in a way that saves on costs. As explained in the latest partnership press release, “JAGGAER customers now have access to enriched supplier data, including data autonomously tagged with diversity status and certifications, all within TealBook’s Supplier Data Platform. The collaboration automates the maintenance of supplier profiles, removing dependency on suppliers to update their information.”
After all, knowing your suppliers is not just having vendor records with contact information for payment purposes. It is also knowing suppliers’ unique offerings, responsiveness, sustainability and ethics, certifications, and how they compare to others within your private supplier network and within the larger supply chain so decisions are informed and blind spots can be eliminated.
JAGGAER partners with TealBook so that you can:
- Benefit from a robust set of procurement solutions
- Fuel those solutions with autonomously updated, supplier data and
- Instantly incorporate that data into your upstream decision-making processes.
For example, by integrating TealBook with JAGGAER, you now have access to supplier data that is autonomously pulled in and updated, taking the burden off your suppliers to update the data themselves. That means you’ll have smarter data to work with to make more informed procurement decisions and save time and money by not manually gathering the data. In one case, TealBook found that 500 out of 8,000 records in an organization vendor master had insufficiencies; those records were then corrected and consolidated, saving the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in time savings.
When it comes down to it, TealBook + your existing S2P solution means you can have your cake and eat it too – with a cherry on top (if we’re mixing metaphors).
Unleash Procurement Possibilities
It’s time to take your supplier data to the next level and power your existing procurement investments with strong supplier data. Learn more about how TealBook easily integrates with other S2P platforms by visiting our partner page.
