Top 11 IT Vendor Management Tools (for Procurement and IT Teams)

A modern vendor management solution scraps out the need for using spreadsheets or on-prem focussed tools and offers a centralized record for managing vendors. 

The supplier dashboard will act as a single source of truth, including project details, vendor qualifications, performance analysis, and billing.

Vendor management solutions are dedicatedly made to help businesses manage vendor collaborations, from signing NDAs to onboarding and performance management. It helps manage the entire vendor lifecycle, ensuring proper communication and timely approvals to get things done on time. 

Organizations often find difficulty managing SaaS vendors and assessing the risk associated with them. A SaaS vendor management solution can not only help IT teams with automating their tasks but with assessing their SaaS spend, and ensure organizations remain secure & compliant. 

Adhering to your needs, we have listed the top 10 vendor solutions for your growing IT businesses.

Features to Look for in an IT Vendor Management Software 

These are some core features of robust vendor management software that every IT team requires. 

1. Unified vendor information: A good IT vendor management solution scraps out the need for using spreadsheets and offers a centralized record for every vendor. The supplier dashboard will act as a single source of truth, including project details, vendor qualifications, performance analysis, and billing. 

2. Cross-functional data-sharing: Seamless integration of data across departments removes redundant activities and standardizes business processes. This means teams managing internal audits, business continuity, information security, and others will share the same database, removing any data silos and duplication. 

3. Third-party or vendor risk assessment: Your IT vendor management tool must aid in identifying the potential risk of onboarding a vendor. The system should quantify the risk so that project managers can take appropriate steps in need. You can create vendor scorecards to capture performance metrics, collect team feedback, do a proper risk assessment, and set a milestone.

4. Self-service to vendors: IT vendor management software plays a critical role in ensuring that projects are delivered timely, within the company’s budget, and comply with security policies. To get this done, vendors need to have a proper channel of collaboration and communication. A good vendor management solution allows vendors to onboard themselves and appoints a separate dashboard to participate in the performance analysis of the project. 

5. Comprehensive reporting: Your vendor management software must include reporting to analyze project performance and measure key areas for improvement. A good vendor management solution lets you generate bid reports, company spending, approved vendor lists, supplier diversity, and others. 

How to Choose the Right Vendor Management Solution for Your Organization

Choosing the right IT vendor management solution is a task in itself. The software should help your organization centralize vendor information, automate tasks, and ensure complete transparency between both parties. If not done right, It can jeopardize your time and company’s money. 

So, the first step to selecting a vendor management solution is understanding why you need one in the first place. You must identify your pain point before you begin your search. This will help you filter out software that might look appealing with great features but do not salvage your business needs. 

With these pain points in mind, identify what short-term or long-term goals you are trying to achieve. Your short-term goals can be to accelerate vendor onboarding and meet project deadlines. 

Wherein your long-term goals can be to reduce cost and vendor risk. You can quantify your goals to measure them effectively at regular intervals.  

Mapping out these points will help you streamline your search and most probably end up with a solution that complies with your organization’s needs. 

Top Vendor Management Solution for Your IT organization

1. Zluri

Zluri (That's us! 🙂) is primarily a SaaS management platform that helps users to discover, optimize and secure SaaS applications. It enables businesses to explore and manage third-party SaaS applications as well as their security and compliance from a command center. It gives IT teams greater control over their tech stack. 

 Zluri helps you to automate time-consuming and repetitive IT tasks such as employee onboarding and offboarding, making it quicker and safer. 

Deprovisioning via Zluri can be done with ease with a single click. During de-provisioning, Zluri doesn't stop at SSO level authorization. It monitors the usage of the SSO system as well. For example, it monitors users for which apps they have access to, what level of permissions they have for the apps, their sign-in logs, audit logs, and access logs. 

If a user still has access to any app or has not been removed (in rare cases), Zluri alerts you that the user can still use the application. 

Though Zluri takes some inputs from SSO, such as sign-in information, for Zluri, SSOs are not mandatory. Zluri is better than SSO in provisioning and de-provisioning because, with SSO, you just get access to surface-level data while Zluri can go directly to the application. 

Features

• Discovering your organization's subscriptions

• Category and function of each application

• Find unused and underused apps

• Removing duplicate apps with overlapping functions

• Automating contract renewals

• Automating employee onboarding and onboarding

Pros

• Integrates with 200,000+ apps

• Gives accurate SaaS usage stats

• Single click provisioning and de-provisioning

2. Genuity  

Genuity is a vendor management tool that is dedicatedly made to help IT organizations manage vendor relationships at a very low price. Here, you will find IT-specific tools, including SaaS & vendor spending, contract management, asset management, help desk, and more. Adopting Genuity will help you automate your tasks and allow your organization to make more informed decisions. IT professionals can also integrate their favorite IT apps like G-Suite, AWS, Quickbooks, etc. 

Pricing 

Genuity offers a single plan of $29.99/month with a free trial period of the first 30 days. 

Pros 

• Easy-to-use interface 

• Unlimited users can log in under one flat fee

• It is affordable 

• The software allows users to customize their contract types asset types with other customization options. 

Cons

• You might find some bugs which are, however, resolved quickly. 

3. Blissfully 

Blissfully is a modern vendor management tool for IT organizations to get complete project visibility and workflow automation. The project manager has a separate vendor dashboard with information regarding renewals, approval processes, and company spending. It allows you to track and manage all your vendors on the same platform. On Blissfully, you can upload contacts and get vendor information at a glance. 

Pricing 

Pricing plans are customized according to the size and technology used in the organization. 

Pros

• It offers a comprehensive overview of the organization's SaaS spending and sets budgets to save extra bucks. 

• Onboarding and offboarding vendors are a breeze with Blissfully. 

Cons

• The UX might take longer to perform tasks and disrupt seamless navigation.

4. Netsuite 

Netsuite vendor management tool helps you build strong supplier relationships with a centralized space that contains information about each vendor. The platform offers self-service to vendors to collaborate and communicate with the project management team. It is apt for IT organizations that prefer a dashboard of details where they monitor vendor’s performance and get complete information on bills, contracts, renewals, all at the same place. 

Pricing 

Netsuite charges an annual license fee from its users. This subscription includes core platform features optional modules based on the number of users. You will have to contact the Netsuite team to ask for a quote. 

Pros

• It’s an intuitive platform with a steep learning curve. You will get used to the reporting system in no time. 

• IT organizations can integrate various applications, including Shopify, Salesforce CRM, or in-house developed billing or inventory systems. 

• Netsuite is highly customizable with Specific Modules, SuiteScript, and SuiteFlow, making it suitable for any business. 

Cons 

• Support might need some improvement. 

5. TYA Suite 

TYA Suite is an advanced vendor management software that allows IT organizations to go paperless and digitally manage their vendors. The platform allows real-time screening and onboarding of vendors with all necessary documents automatically uploaded against supplier profiles. Project managers can also live-track vendor performance, blacklist vendors, and block payment in just a click. TYA Suite offers easy integration with TYASuite P2P and ERP platforms with the software. 

Pros

• TYA Suite is easy to deploy with a steep learning curve. 

• User-friendly interface 

• Over 2000 features can be added to your workflow without needing technical support. 

• It automates the entire business process and scraps out any unnecessary expenditure. 

Cons

• Free trial only available in the basic plan 

6. Onspring 

With Onspring, IT teams get real-time visibility on the supply chain, save money from lapsed contracts, and ensure robust collaboration between vendors and teams. It allows project managers to automate their tasks from client onboarding to tracking legal reviews of transactions. You can also access advanced analytics capabilities to measure vendor performance and track potential risk from any pending disputes. 

Pricing 

Onspring offers a unique pricing plan where you choose your licensing model based on your users, solution, or both. Lastly, there are three plans: bronze, silver, and gold, containing features according to your business needs. 

Pros 

• The customer support is excellent and solves problems quickly. 

• It’s an all-in-one software from audit feature, compliance tracker, and an efficient vendor management platform. 

Cons

• It will take time for beginners to write complex formulas and get used to Onspring reporting capabilities.

7. Productiv 

Productiv is a dedicated SaaS management platform that offers a complete vendor assessment and lets IT leaders unlock productivity even remotely. The software makes it easier for project managers to track vendor performance, renewals, and company spending. It enables you to reduce vendor costs with continuous evaluation, gather insights into employee management, and offer 360-degree project visibility. 

Pricing

Productiv offers two plans; Essential and Enterprise. The Essential plan is free for everyone, enables you to, and the Enterprise plan has more diverse features and comes with unique pricing according to your business. 

Pros

• It offers complete visibility on your SaaS spending from contracts/MSAs, SSO, and other spending software. 

• Productiv compliance feature makes sure your software is under CCPA and GDPR. 

• It is an all-in-one package that offers easy-to-use integrations, an overview of company spending, and other crucial vendor management features. 

Cons

• The UI can be more intuitive where finding tabs isn’t difficult. 

• Should be more granular in reviewing applications 

8. SAP Ariba

SAP Ariba is an industry-leading supplier management platform that offers updated vendor information, including the projects they are working on, company spending, and performance evaluation. The platform lets you make more informed decisions and reduce up-front supplier risk. You can maintain unified vendor information with regular updates to gain confidence in your data and effectively manage supplier risk. 

Pricing 

SAP Ariba offers two plans; Standard and Enterprise. The Standard plan is free of cost, whereas the Enterprise plan is based on the volume of transactions run through the ARIBA network. You can check SAP Ariba region-wise pricing from here. 

SAP Ariba Pros & Cons

Pros

• Supplier onboarding is fast with SAP Ariba and contains training for new vendors as per account type. 

• With SAP Ariba, you can easily create a vendor workflow from providing a quote, purchasing orders, and invoicing back to the supplier. 

•  Simple user interface for easy navigation. 

Cons 

• The customer support needs improvement. 

9. Standard Fusion

Standard Fusion offers a vendor management solution that lets you identify, assess and centralize supplier information to automate tasks and mitigate risk for IT organizations. Its advanced risk assessment technology is beneficial for projects with a high risk to value ratio. Such detailed representations of supplier information provide complete project visibility to vendors and project managers. 

Pricing 

IT organizations can contact the sales team to get a quote for their vendor management requirement. 

Standard Fusion offers four pricing plans-

• Starter- $750/month

• Professional-$1700/month

• Enterprise-$3500/month

• Enterprise+-$8000/month

Pros 

• It’s an excellent compliance tool that tracks multiple standards at all times. 

• You can easily integrate spreadsheets, third-party apps, and existing or latest standards. 

• Standard Fusion is easy to understand and navigate. 

Cons 

• The Single sign-on (SSO) feature is only available in the enterprise package.

10. MetricStream GRC

Gartner has recognized MetricStream as a leader in IT vendor risk management tools for 2021. It is an AI-powered solution that reduces vendor risk via real-time risk intelligence and complete risk visibility. The software lets businesses stay at the top of their project game and conduct complete audits to make them take risk-aware decisions. MetricStream GRC mitigates third-party risks IT & cyber security risks and fulfills its ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) requirement. 

Pricing 

Pricing is defined according to your business requirement. There are no fixed plans. 

Pros 

• It supports all types of vendor management risk, including enterprise, operational, third-party, and IT risks. 

• You can easily map out current workflows through simple configurations

• Powerful data-sharing across the organization

Cons

• Third-party integration can be made better. 

11. ServiceNow 

ServiceNow provides a vendor management workspace where IT organizations complete a project review with performance analytics, comprehensive vendor profile, risk management analysis, and compliance monitoring. The platform lets you centralize data and accelerate project completion with a unified vendor landing page containing project deadlines and other KPIs. 

Pricing 

It offers flexible pricing tailored according to your business requirement. 

ServiceNow Pros and Cons 

Pros 

• It offers an intuitive dashboard that makes navigation easy. 

• ServiceNow Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) ensure proper compliance and offers robust audit reporting across the organization. 

Cons

• Complexity in defining workflows