What comes to mind when you think of a Vendor . . . a coin operated snack dispenser, a sidewalk food service, or perhaps someone selling flowers or hand made jewelry on the corner? In fact these are all vendors as well as the local bakery, the service station or corner store and the door to door vacuum salesman. Read on to get our definition of a vendor when it relates to purchasing.
A Vendor is defined as a company which supplies parts, materials or services to another company or individual, also referred to as a supplier. This includes all companies that you do business with and help you bring your project to completion or provide you with a service to help you accomplish your tasks. They may provide uniforms or a cleaning service, prepare payroll, accounting or financial statements, deliver office/shop supplies, produce graphic layouts or manufacture tools, parts and equipment, provide transportation of goods or international relations assistance. Some Vendors you may deal with on a daily, weekly or monthly basis others you may do business with only once a year.
Vendors can and do many things which can make your business successful. These are the persons that introduce us to new products and services to improve productivity, they can offer advice or recommendations to help address a current need or fulfill a requirement. They can be an excellent resource when researching solutions to an unfamiliar request and help keep our product knowledge current.
In this post we have touched on a wide range of various vendors types. RFQPro’s main focus is on vendors which warrant performing a Vendor Performance Review or Supplier Evaluation on. We focus on key Vendors important to the survival of your business. They supply goods and services which help produce or manufacture an end product which is then sold into the marketplace.
You are not going to worry too much about the Vendor that sells you a hot dog or that cup of joe but if you are a purchasing manager then you work for a company that likely has many vital vendor relationships. These Vendors help your business remain profitable, they are paid by your company and they make money from your business or orders.
So our definition of a Vendor is one that is in fact a partner in our business, they are in the top 20% of all suppliers we do business (spend) with and warrant spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars auditing, evaluating and providing feedback to on an annual basis. RFQPro has a first rate Vendor Performance Review (RFQ30) and it is available in our Premium Pack and our Performance Pack. We are also the group behind the RFQ Software which has a built in Supplier Evaluation Tool. This on-line vendor performance tool is part of the Pro Version subscription of our RFQ Software.