Role of Supplier Portals in Supply Chain Management

With the rapid revolution in Information Technology the information exchange between suppliers and buyers have replaced by Web-based methods instead communicating with suppliers by fax and phone.
The supplier portal supports the collaboration of supplier quality related information. The automation of these supplier quality processes, coupled with real-time collaboration, will improve existing processes for both parties.
The Supplier Portal is a centralized portal solution for managing all supplier interactions. As a web–based, easy–to–use, task–oriented supplier solution, it provides suppliers self–service profile and catalog administration, visibility to purchasing transactions and history, and the ability to initiate an inquiry or transactions such as a purchase order, acknowledgement, advanced shipping notice, or invoice.
Supplier Portal also provides suppliers a mechanism to communicate requests or questions to buyers and provides them notices and alerts for buyer assigned tasks. Supplier Portal helps suppliers focus on value–added activities such as fulfilling customer orders and managing their catalog content. It is geared towards lowering the barriers to supplier participation in procurement initiatives and furthermore provides suppliers a platform for accessing value–added services and capabilities, such as integration to their enterprise systems These supplier portals works in a manner that suppliers allowed to access Manufacturer’s site where it contains the demand and on hand quantity of the part.
Supplier commits to the parts with the price, date of shipment and the quantity he can ship on that particular day. The buyer of the company then plans the internal supply chain for manufacturing the product. This makes the manufacturer to give delivery of the order placed by customer.
Depending on industries companies monitor distributor events ranging from the receipt of raw materials to component manufacturing, shipment of finished goods and transportation status.
Supplier Portal enables manufacturers to improve communication and collaboration with suppliers by providing several capabilities such as below:
Order tracking:
In the portal, a performance dashboard indicates the status of critical activities, allows users to drill down into details, and determines the proper action needed. The status overview provides information on: open orders, overdue shipments, upcoming shipments, order changes requiring acknowledgement and re-order point requirements.
Message Boards:
Supplier Portal enables manufacturers to create and publish messages to their suppliers. The messages can be automatically emailed and are seen each time a user logs on to the system
Alerts
The portal ensures that suppliers have read messages and establishes alert dates, dates by which a supplier must acknowledge or respond to messages.
Inquiries
Supplier Portal provides inquiry capabilities to enhance visibility within the following areas: purchase and blanket orders, material receipts, items, returns to vendor and payment information.
Supplier Portal enables supplies to split deliveries when they cannot completely fulfill an order by the required date. Suppliers can split the order to satisfy demand by delivering a partial order immediately and then providing the balance at a later date. Manufacturers instantly see this and are able to incorporate it into production plans.

My First Blog

This is my First posting to a blog in this internet world.
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