A Vendor Portal That Ends the Email Tennis

The Challenge

Purchase orders and invoices lived in email

The purchasing team emailed purchase orders to suppliers, then waited for invoices and delivery dates to come back by email in every format. Details were keyed into the ERP by hand, dates went stale, and onboarding a new supplier meant a long thread of forms and questions.

• Purchase orders sent and tracked by email.
• Invoices arrived in many formats and were keyed by hand.
• Delivery dates went out of date with no easy way to update them.
• Onboarding a new supplier was slow and manual.

The Solution

A portal where suppliers self-serve

We built a vendor portal connected to the ERP. Suppliers sign in to see their purchase orders, submit invoices against them, and update delivery dates themselves. Each supplier sees only their own records, and new suppliers onboard through a guided sign-up rather than an email thread.

• Suppliers see their purchase orders live from the ERP.
• Invoices submitted in the portal, matched to the order.
• Suppliers update their own delivery dates.
• Guided onboarding for new suppliers.

How We Delivered

Started with the busiest suppliers

We mapped the purchasing flow and agreed what suppliers should be able to do, then connected the portal to the ERP. We rolled it out to the busiest suppliers first, gathered their feedback, and widened access once it was steady.

The portal went live in eight weeks.

The Outcome

Less email, cleaner data, faster onboarding

The email back-and-forth dropped sharply because suppliers find what they need and submit it in the portal. Invoice and delivery data is cleaner because it comes in structured against the order, not as free-text email. New suppliers onboard faster through the guided sign-up.