Managing Vendor Contacts

Vendor Management in Vendorful allows you to easily create and keep track of the contacts that you know of at vendors you have listed on the platform. It provides an easy way for both the buyer and the vendors to add and edit contact information so that the records are always reliable and easy to use. Let look at how both buyers and vendors can view and edit this information. 

The view to edit contacts looks the same for both buyers and vendors, however the path to get the view differs:

For Buyers

If you are a buyer and you want to manage the contacts you have at one of your vendors you will start in the Vendors > Manage Your Vendors option found in the main menu. From here you will select the vendor you would like to manage and then select the Contacts tab. 

For Vendors

If you are a vendor and are trying to create contacts for buyers to use or update your current information you will follow a similar process. In the main menu you will go to Customers > Manage Your Customers. This screen will show you any buyers that have sent your organization a request. It is important to note that your contact records may be different per buyer. For this reason you will need to select a buyer organization in order to edit the contacts that they have access to. Once you have done this, select the Contacts tab to view the list of contacts that buyer has access to. 

Adding/Editing Contacts

Buyers and Vendors will see the same list when viewing contacts. This shared list shows all of the vendor's contacts that the buying organization can use for RFx and Auctions done on the Vendorful platform. From this screen contacts may be added by clicking Add Contact, edited by clicking the pencil icon on the left, or deleted entirely by clicking the X to the right. Adding and Editing will show the following popup where the contact's details can be completed. 

Any changes made will be shown in both the buyer's and vendor's contact list. In this way vendors can add and edit contacts to make sure the buyer has the most up-to-date information about the vendor's contacts. 

A note on Vendorful Contacts vs. User Accounts

It is important to be aware of the distinction between Contacts and User accounts in Vendorful. Adding a contact will not automatically allow that person to have access to Vendorful. A User Account will still need to be created for that person in order for them to be able to log into Vendorful. At any time a vendor may add a colleague by going to their User Menu (found by clicking your initials in the top right corner) > Invite A Colleague. Buyers cannot directly add users to vendor organizations. However, whenever a contact is invited to do something in Vendorful, such as responding to a request, they will receive an invitation to create a User Account. 

This image shows the icons used in Vendorful to show if a Contact has a User Account. In this example, Bill Lumberg has a User Account and has used it to log into Vendorful. Peter Gibbons has a User Account but has not logged into Vendorful to claim it. Both Michael and Samir have been added as Contacts but do not currently have User Accounts associated with their listed email address. 

Contact details and User Account details can be edited independently. For this reason care should be taken when editing a contact's email to make sure the emails are consistent when they should be.