Strategies to implement a high-performance supplier portal with Liferay

A robust supplier portal created with Liferay DXP can eliminate several supplier management problems. It is a central repository of invoices, account information, purchase orders, delivery dates, and other crucial information. With a consolidated view of their interactions, companies can streamline their procurement processes, gain valuable insights into their supply chain, and improve vendor satisfaction.

Out of 623 companies surveyed in 2024, only 6% have complete supply chain visibility. A supplier portal can enhance supply chain visibility when combined with other technologies. However, this brings us to the million-dollar question? How does one develop a tailored, high-performance supplier portal? This blog will highlight how companies can create a solid supplier portal with Liferay.

Table of Contents

• What is a vendor portal?
• 8 Strategies for building a high-performance supplier portal with Liferay
• 6 challenges of using Liferay for supplier portal development
• Future of Liferay in supplier portal development
• Final thoughts

What is a supplier portal?

A supplier portal is a resourceful tool that facilitates efficient communication between a company and its suppliers. It is more than a messaging/calling app. A supplier/vendor portal stores valuable documents like invoices, contracts, and purchase orders while monitoring supply chain activities and ensuring cordial relationships with suppliers.

57% of companies admit that supply chain disruptions affect their revenue. Simply put, a supplier portal is a SaaS software that optimizes collaboration between companies and suppliers. Depending on the target audience and functionalities, many supplier portals exist. Examples include the following:

• Procurement-focused portals
• Collaboration portals
• Performance management portals
• Financial portals
• B2B and B2C portals

Companies may choose a single portal for their business needs or combine elements of various portals to provide a comprehensive solution.

8 Effective Strategies to Build a High-Performance Supplier Portal Using Liferay

Implementing a supplier portal with Liferay requires a well-defined strategy to ensure optimal performance, integration, and real-time information sharing between multiple parties. Below are the eight strategies to successfully implement a high-performance portal with Liferay DXP.

1. Define clear business objectives
A supplier portal must be efficient while enabling employees to coordinate with suppliers and mitigate supply chain risks. A cross-functional team must define the supplier’s goals and KPIs.

The development team can develop a custom supplier portal with set goals. The KPIs can help measure the portal’s performance post-launch. A detailed evaluation of the portal can foster continuous improvement, bug fixing, optimization, and preparedness for future challenges.

2. User-centric design
A supplier portal must have an engaging user experience. Research is the first step in developing such a portal. This process involves gathering data related to users through observation, market research, and usability testing.

When the development team clearly understands user needs and preferences, they can create a simple, consistent, intuitive, and accessible user interface. The content should be organized to offer easy navigation and appealing visual elements. Most importantly, it should be easily accessible on multiple devices.

3. Streamlined supplier onboarding
The third step is creating a smooth supplier onboarding process to ensure everyone is on the same page. The portal must be intuitive enough to allow suppliers to enter information directly. Clear promotions and fields will reduce errors and ensure consistency. It should also allow suppliers to upload documents.

Furthermore, integrating the automated data capture and validation system with OCR technology will enable efficient data extraction from uploaded documents. Implementing data cleaning and standardization algorithms, error-handling procedures, and ensuring real-time validation will help suppliers save time and boost accuracy.

Establish a clear workflow with defined stages, automated routing to relevant departments and employees, automated notifications, and an escalation matrix. The supplier portal must also have self-service capabilities, besides being a centralized platform for accessing all data.

4. Data sharing and security
Liferay DXP has robust security features that development companies can leverage to protect supplier information. These security features include the following:

• Role-based access control (RBAC) – This feature helps define granular permissions based on user roles so that only authorized personnel can access specific information.
• User management – Strong password policies, two-factor authentication, and changing passwords every few months can protect user accounts.
• Secure Communication – HTTPS and SSL/TLS certificates can encrypt the information shared between users on the supplier portal.
• Audit logging – This feature helps track user activities and system events to detect unauthorized users or suspicious activities.
• Security headers – Configuring HTTP security headers protects suppliers against most online threats.

Other encryption and access control measures include the following:

• Data encryption at rest
• Data encryption in transit
• Field-level encryption
• Access controls refinement
• Data loss prevention
• Regular security assessments

Lastly, companies must educate employees and suppliers about the best security practices to prevent breaches and intrusions. They can also configure the system to ensure employees set strong passwords and change them every few months.

Continuous monitoring of system activities is necessary to identify anomalies and shady behavior. Compliance with relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, will prevent fines and lawsuits.

5. Systematic communication
Streamlined and real-time communication between businesses, suppliers, and other parties results in smooth operations and stronger relationships. Integrating email, instant messaging, and document-sharing channels facilitates real-time communication for informed decision-making. Companies can further improve communication by implementing the following measures.

• Unified inbox – A centralized inbox within the supplier portal consolidates multiple interactions from several channels, resulting in total transparency and clarity.
• Communication history – Records all interactions for accountability and future reference.
• Notifications – Customizable notifications to notify parties about important events and get timely responses to messages.
• File sharing integration – Robust integration of supplier portals with document management systems fosters timely file sharing and excellent collaboration.
• Translation tools – Ensures effective collaboration for international clients, eliminating language barriers.
• Set communication preferences – Users can customize their communication preferences by choosing their preferred channels, notifications, and more.

6. Automated workflows
Using the Kaleo workflow engine, Liferay DXP allows companies to define workflows, assign and route tasks, manage approvals, and ensure robust integrations with many systems. Thanks to this workflow automation, employees don’t have to worry about repetitive tasks and can focus on strategic activities. Standardized processes reduce manual errors, while automated checks and approvals ensure strict compliance with internal policies. Real-time insights into workflow progress eliminate bottlenecks and ensure faster task completion.

7. Data analytics
Companies that persist with manual processes to manage supplier relationships often suffer from stale data and poor visibility into performance metrics. Liferay DXP integrates various systems, collects data, and standardizes it. Its pre-set templates generate reports related to many departments, including purchase order statuses, inventory counts, and supplier performance.

Suppliers can tailor these reports to suit their business needs. Liferay DXP’s data visualization tools allow users to present complex data more straightforwardly using flowcharts, diagrams, images, and more. Most importantly, Liferay DXP doesn’t rely solely on historical data. Companies can leverage trend analysis tools to identify market trends and supplier performance over different periods to make informed decisions.

8. Continuous improvement and feedback
Whether its companies or suppliers, both must aim for continuous improvement to improve their services and develop long-lasting relationships. This feedback must be user-friendly, accessible, and foster open communication. Companies must create a section in the supplier portal where suppliers can provide feedback regarding the platform’s features, usability, navigation, user experience and problems they face.

The methods of collecting feedback can include emails, surveys, instant messaging, meeting discussions, suggestion box and others. Always be transparent about the purpose of the feedback and its possible uses. Ensure that the feedback reaches the right people and departments while rewarding those who provide constructive feedback.

Divide feedback into several categories, assign it the appropriate priority based on its importance and seriousness.

6 challenges of using Liferay for supplier portal development

Using Liferay DXP for portal development has many advantages, but it also has its share of disadvantages.

1. Customization complications
Building a bespoke supplier portal with Liferay DXP requires knowledgeable and experienced developers and considerable time.

2. System integration
Integrating the supplier with ERP, inventory management, procurement, and other systems can be complex and time-consuming.

3. Data migration
Migrating data from older systems, especially legacy equipment, into the supplier portal can take hours. In addition to being time-consuming and prone to errors, the inconsistent data formats of legacy systems, technical issues, and configuration errors may corrupt the supplier portal.

4. Resistance to change
Companies may face resistance to change, especially from older and less tech-savvy individuals (including suppliers and employees). Additionally, they may have to conduct extra training sessions and perform change management to encourage supplier adoption.

5. Performance optimization
Ensuring optimal performance for a large user base can be challenging. Companies may need to upgrade their resources and infrastructure to meet the increased demands.

6. Maintenance and support
Supplier portals often require round-the-clock support, maintenance, and quick problem-solving. Smaller companies may struggle to achieve these goals with limited staff and resources.

Future of Liferay DXP in supplier portal development

Liferay DXP is open-source and built in the open, plus its large user base makes it a reliable choice for portal development. Its constant innovation and focus on digital transformation can benefit companies immensely. What can Liferay DXP do for companies in the future? Possible uses of Liferay DXP include the following:

AI and ML integration
Integration of AI and ML with supplier platforms can revolutionize business operations. Companies can train AI to accomplish repetitive tasks and analyze vast volumes of data for automated decision-making. AI can also find new ways to boost efficiency and accuracy. Other capabilities of AI and ML include improved search functionality and predictive analytics.

Mobile-focused experience
With the rising use of smartphones and other digital devices, companies must optimize their supplier portals for an enhanced experience. Liferay DXP’s built-in responsive design capabilities ensure that the supplier portal can adapt to devices with varying screen sizes.

Blockchain Integration
Liferay DXP can leverage the blockchain network to store valuable supply chain information and automate payments, order fulfillment, quality control checks, and other processes. Moreover, Liferay’s integration with the blockchain network provides real-time data related to the supply chain that can benefit multiple parties.

Low-code/No-code approach
Liferay DXP can be used by both technical and non-technical users to create customized supplier portals for clients. Its visual page builder, form builder, digital experience templates, and content management tools provide companies with the much-needed scalability and flexibility to survive in a competitive environment.

Final thoughts

Implementing a high-performance Liferay DXP can bring about a 360-degree change for companies. Besides improving collaboration and communication, a supplier portal improves supplier performance management and increases supply chain visibility. The vendor market size is estimated to rise by $5.34 billion at a CAGR of 12.8% between 2023 and 2028. These numbers state that supply portals are not a fad or a passing trend. They are here to stay.

However, companies must consider several factors before adopting supply portals. They must analyze their long-term goals, supplier base, procurement complexities, and integration requirements. Also, companies must understand that they can expect to incur a one-time cost and relax. Besides the development and implementation costs, supplier portals have regular maintenance and upgrade costs.

It doesn’t make sense for a company to invest in a supplier portal if they can’t recover the costs in the long term or cannot afford the maintenance costs. Is investing in a supplier portal the right decision for your company? Do you have the resources and expertise to develop and implement a supplier portal? If you need guidance and help with developing and implementing supplier portals, Tridhya Tech is here to help. Call us at +1 386 597 1231 or email us at [email protected].