The search for suppliers and their approval

What is supplier certification and why is it necessary?

In order for a company to provide its products or services to our company, it must meet certain requirements.

We will define them according to our way of working and our needs as well as our social responsibility. 

Before looking for a supplier, we should make sure we have a list of these parameters, which will answer questions about quality, delivery capacity and performance.

In addition to price and scope, supplier certification emphasises aspects such as these:

- Financial health: it must assess the risk of contracting a supplier and evaluate whether or not the company needs an advance payment to operate, whether it can close, etc.

- Supplier quality: if we demand a high level of quality in our products and services, we must also demand it from our suppliers. It is essential to know if they have ISO certifications or quality control systems.

- Sustainability: the future of the purchasing department depends on sustainability. This can be environmental, with a production with zero or little impact on the environment, or social, with a labour policy that takes care of the employee. 

The approval of suppliers is necessary to avoid problems derived from the previous points, such as the closure of the supplier in the middle of the project due to poor financial health or a social and public relations crisis caused by a bad action with its workers. 

Is supplier sourcing and supplier certification the same thing?

Although in smaller companies these two processes are carried out almost simultaneously, supplier search and supplier approval are not the same thing. 

However, these two actions are two different and consecutive phases of the purchasing process, as we saw in the article on the digitisation of B2B purchasing processes. 

Once we have found our suppliers, the ideal thing to do is to standardise them with one of the methods we have implemented in our company.

How can B2B Safe help us in the search for and certification of suppliers?

It is in the supplier search and accreditation phases that the B2B Safe tool brings a lot of value.

This multi-sector Marketplace offers a panel of suppliers segmented by branch of activity and geographical area that makes it very easy to search for suppliers for the purchasing areas.

In addition, we have the option of opening a public RFx, i.e. a request for potential suppliers.

In the RFx (Request for X, where X can be Information, quotation or proposal) we define exactly what our needs are and send them to the suppliers.

With B2B Safe, we have easy access to existing suppliers for each type of need in each area or location.  

All of this translates into time savings and greater reliability in this critical phase of sourcing suppliers from the purchasing areas. 

Furthermore, as far as their approval is concerned, we should know that all suppliers are verified by Crédito y Caución. At the date of publication of this article, moreover, they are all insured by the company.  

On the other hand, we can access documentation that each supplier includes in their profile such as financial reports, ownership of bank accounts, ISO certificates, etc.

All this documentation corroborates the quality of their service and saves time in the event that we need it to approve our supplier for each type of activity, geographical area, order amount or any other classification or internal authorisation of the company. 

It is important to remember that the use of the B2B Safe tool does not generate any additional costs, as it does not charge commission to suppliers for selling on the marketplace. 

Therefore, the final negotiated price is not increased and can even be improved by the competition that responds to the Public RFx within the B2B Safe negotiation.

Sign up for free on B2B Safe and start searching and approving your suppliers in record time and at no extra cost.