Often Overlooked VMS Features

There are many reasons for a business to upgrade their vendor management to a dedicated software platform.

A Vendor Management System (VMS) player will make your company a nimble player, able to utilise every new opportunity or respond quickly to threats in the market.

This is because the technology gives you the ability to rapidly enlist and deploy new talent and painlessly scale operations to meet demand.  This is a lot to expect from any technology. But it's what you need to get ahead in this fast-paced, global economy.

When choosing a VMS for your business, there are several key features to consider. This is not what this article is about.

Here we will consider those nice-to-have features that are often overlooked in the search for the best VMS. for your business. They may not be the essential features that keep your business afloat, but they are significant nonetheless. They are designed to boost your productivity and give your company a competitive advantage.

And if you have to choose between two systems, one having these features and one without, these features might just be the tipping point to help you make the right choice.

Feature 1: Streamlined Vendor Selection

Choosing the right vendor is crucial towards achieving success in your vendor management effort.

If you're stuck with the wrong vendor, fantastic vendor management won't be able to magically fix all your problems.

So realistically, one of the core reasons for using a VMS is to help you sift through vendor candidates to choose the best one to meet your particular business needs. The system must then help you onboard the vendor to get them up and running as quickly as possible.  

When you consider different VMS packages in the market, look at the way candidate vendors are  submitted to the system. Does the system streamline this process and help you to evaluate each candidate properly? Will the system be an improvement on your current system for sourcing and vetting candidates?

Something else to consider is the type of tools the system gives a hiring manager to sift through possible candidates, including the process of reviewing each candidate, requesting an interview, and then finally selecting the best one.

Does the system give you tools to find and then process quality candidates? Will the system be able to sift out the bad apples from the start—for example, vendors that gave you problems in the past?

What about candidates that have previously applied and failed to obtain a contract—will the system flag them so that you don't inadvertently waste your time?

Feature 2: Social Collaboration

Another often overlooked feature of a VMS is its ability to offer social collaboration tools.

The VMS must enable you to open channels of communication between all the relevant stakeholders who make your vendor management efforts work. These would include everyone involved in managing the projects, the hiring manager, any recruitment agencies, and of course the candidate vendors themselves.

When a VMS has social collaboration capabilities, the extra flow of information will allow you to solve problems faster, drawing on the experience of everyone in your extended vendor networks. In this way you enable disparate teams and individuals to help each other make the project a success.

Many VMS solutions don't have social capabilities. When going through the VMS selection process, inquire from the different developers if it's a feature of their products.

It would also be worthwhile to ask each developer for a demonstration of their social collaboration tools. Ask them to show you how these tools are designed to  improve communication, promote collaboration and boost your overall efficiency.

The type of social tools they offer also makes a difference. For example, some VMS systems offer  chat functionality or a messaging system. Some also offer messaging boards where team members can post questions and offer  responses. So when someone needs assistance with a problem, they will be able to get the support they need from the right person in your network.

The better the user interface for these types of products are, the better. When the social features are easy to use, people will actually use them.

Feature 3: Simplified Administration

Managing a whole stable of vendors comes with a spate of administrative work. Often this task falls to the project managers.

If the VMS is able to decrease the workload on these already overworked staff members, it will improve the overall efficiency of your PMO. The technology will allow them to focus on strategic decision making rather than administrative functions.

The more effective the  VMS is in streamlining the paperwork and administrative duties of managing vendors, the better.

When you consider different VMS options, it would be worthwhile going  through the administrative features of the software in some detail. Is the system configurable to adapt to your administrative style and setup? How is data managed by the system? Would it be easy for members of your staff to input vendor data or retreive actionable information from the system?

Will the system be able to scale as your business and corresponding administrative duties grow? How easy will it be for your staff to configure the system? Will the system be able to perform bulk actions and accommodate a change in workflow or reorganisation?

Will the system make managing your day-to-day administrative duties easier and more efficient? Does the system allow you to access an audit trail of all activity over a period of time?

All of these types of questions are important, because they will make a real difference to the daily workload of your team and improve the overall efficiency of your vendor management.

Feature 4: Program Interface

The user interface of any technology is crucial to its overall success. Many users are apprehensive of technology and find it difficult to adopt new software or a different method for doing their job.  

This is why a VMS must have a carefully thought-out and designed user interface that offers an experience that feels familiar and easy to manage. The interface should cater especially to users that are a bit technology shy. It should also offer ways for it to be personalised for different usage styles and preferences.

The system should be designed in such a way that it makes users feel at home right away. Help functions should be easy to use and readily accessible.

That is why the program should guide users through the process of getting  familiar with its functions from the login screen and beyond.

As the VMS developer for a demonstration of their user interface. Consider the first screen a user will see when they access the program. Is the interface easy to understand? Will they be able to navigate through the different menus and functions without hours and hours of training?

Are there features included in the system that specifically caters for first-time users—for example a guided tour of the program?

Will the system be able to offer a customised interface for the different teams that are supposed to use the software. For example, can it be customised to fit the workflow of your hiring managers, but offer a different interface to your legal team?

The system's user interface will have a marked influence on how quickly your staff members adopt the technology into their workflows.

Feature 5: Implementation and Integration

Transitioning a business to a new software platform isn't easy. Implementing a different system and integrating it with your existing technology platforms can be complex.

Does the developer make the implementation and integration process as straightforward and seamless as possible? What does their rollout program look like? You should also ask the developer for the typical timeframe for a deployment of their product. How will your particular business scenario affect the rollout schedule?

Find out from the developer how much they are going to be involved in the deployment process. How long will the implementation take from the moment you sign up for their services, until the date of deployment?

Will the typical rollout be done in phases, or is it best to deploy the product across all your geographic locations and business units at once?

What type of integrations does the system provide out of the box, and is the developer able to provide custom integration? How long will the integration development take?

The level of assistance the VMS developer is able to provide in adopting their technology will have a huge impact on the rollout.

Obviously, the quicker you can get the system up and running, the better.

Feature 6: Ongoing Support

When a VMS technology has been fully implemented, it shouldn't mean that your relationship with the developer comes to an end. You will always need continuing support—not only in using the existing feature set of the program, but also making use of the technology's evolving feature set.

You need to inquire from the developer if their  product will be kept up-to-date with regular product updates and releases.

Will the VMS developer actively provide support for their product—which includes managing the transition from the implementation phase to providing regular product updates?

You should also inquire from the developer whether they will be able to make a dedicated support team available to provide regular troubleshooting services. What support will they be able to provide if something goes wrong, and will someone always be available to answer questions from the members of your team?

Do they host a community forum for the users of their products for added support and feedback?

Obviously, the quicker you can get the system up and running, the better. When there are new releases or updates to the technology, how will that be communicated to you?

Feature 7: Business Intelligence

One of the main reasons for upgrading to a VMS, is the business intelligence that can be gleaned from feeding all your data and transactions through the system.

The better data analysis the system is able to perform on your vendor data, the better information you will have to aid your decision making. This will allow you to optimise your vendor contracts, lower cost, and improve your overall efficiency.

With this in mind, you should consider what data processing features the VMS offer to users. How easy will it be to generate reports and how configurable are the results?

It might be worthwhile to ask the developer about the  architecture of the reporting part of the program. Are the data analysis handled by in-house developed components, or do they make use of third-party modules or reporting programs?

Another thing to consider is whether specific queries can be saved and reused. Will you be able to generate customised reports or single queries?

Some systems require extra fees for certain types of reporting or for added users that want to produce reports. Make sure that you understand this fee structure so that you don't run into a nasty surprise down the line.

How customizable is the reporting process? Will the technology be able to report on more complex functions such as vendor scorecards or other types of KPIs? How easy will it be to download, print or share these reports? Will the system be able to benchmark your results against industry standards or other companies?

Conclusion

When choosing a VMS for your business, it's important to talk to all the relevant stakeholders and get their input throughout  all stages of the selection process.

When you go to VMS vendors for demonstrations, make sure to take the right internal stakeholders to these events. Also include program sponsors for initial and subsequent demonstrations.

During the initial VMS selection phase, you have to figure out and define the pain points that the technology will have to resolve. Here it will be important to hold meetings with relevant members from legal, procurement, finance and human resources.

Also include members of your IT teams in these discussions. The goal would be to clarify the business objectives and problems so that they can be presented to the VMS developer for feedback.

You will also need to hold discussions with the different business units to determine the current requirements in your vendor management operations.

Get the measure of your current lineup of vendors and figure out your future need for specific vendors. What types of vendors do you still need to engage? How can you use vendors to improve your current workflows?

While this is a useful exercise for winnowing out any duplicate vendors, it will also point the way to your needs for a future upgrade to a Vendor Management System.

It will give you a clear picture of how you should structure your vendor management going forward and the type of VMS you ultimately need to select for your business.