Helping Companies Manage their Master Data

As the new decade begins there is emerging a new problem that is facing the finance departments of companies across America these days the inability of finance departments to collect and keep accurate vendor contact information . This problem effects companies differently and can add millions of dollars of unneeded cost to the task of interacting with suppliers . 

Having inaccurate supplier master data will make you spend valuable time resolving payment errors. Additionally, inacurate master supplier date  leads to many more Customer service calls and costly  labor intensive work  associated with reconciling inaccurate remittances that are sent to wrong locations .  Let’s also not forget the costs of reissuing checks and chasing down signatures to reconcile spending issues.  The Procurement department will also spend alot of time setting up vendors multiple times in error . Having inaccurate supplier information will also make any  enterprise  software implementations very expensive and problematic to perform across the enterprise. There are also the costs of NOT using automated payment technologies not to mention the inability to take early-payment discounts, confirm contract terms are being adhered to, or to ensure that employees work with preferred vendors 

Government fines can also be collected if a corporation has a supplier file filled with inaccuracies. B-Notice Fines are issued for every supplier that has an inacurate Tax Indentfication number. Most companies evaluate data quality projects because they qualitatively know these things are hurting them. 

There main reason why  companies are in this situation is that for years they have been looking at the Supplier Information Management situation as a project rather than a process. Treating the issue as a project will enable the companies to not only collect the correct information but will allow them to draft an information policy and make sure all the vendors are providing periodic updates on an ongoing basis.

If you are looking to get support from your organization for creating a master data acquisition policy you need only demonstrate the costs associated with having a poorly maintained vendor file. This will quickly get management attention and support. 
In any event, inaccurate Vendor File Management approaches are a universal pain point for most large enterprises and if you are trying to get momentum behind a cleansing project, the best approach is to strongly encourage tying the project back to dollar saving potential.  If you do not know where to start in the process of Supplier information management you can contact one of a number of on-demand service providers that can help you manage the process. 

One of the best solutions is to use the Supplier Information Management application of Lavante. Their application demo can be viewed at www.lavante.com.