The Vendor Ecosystem

Vendor Management Product Group is focused on building products which provides efficient communication, data syndication and process automation with the goal to provide Lowe’s Business partners (Merchants, SC/Compliance & Finance) tools to improve decision making, vendor satisfaction and ease of doing business with Lowe’s.

The Problem

Lack of an enterprise level solution to address vendor management strategy and digitized workflow which negatively impacts multiple aspects of Lowe's business (vendor onboarding, vendor communication, inventory issues because of lack of proactive monitoring, and unsatisfactory vendor experience).

The Scope

The scope of work for Vendor Management will be divided into 4 categories and each will have a designated Product Manager(s):

Vendor Sourcing & Quality Assurance
Vendor Onboarding & Maintenance
Vendor Performance Monitoring
Vendor Experience & Communication

The Goal

Revamp the current Vendor Inquiry following the Vendor Management tenents around maintenance, monitoring, experience and communication

Research Vendors usage and patterns and value to the experience based on Vendor needs.

Vendor Gateway Homepage

Users were split on the card preference, but they loved having the ability to get a clear view of any actions that they need to take.

Even something as simple as this concept, which gives a cursory glance at the number of problem invoices and total suspended allowance was a large improvement and would be helpful to view.

Vendor Comments:

Would like to receive an email with invoice 'updates' or calls-to-action.

Would prefer a snapshot of metrics, or useful communication about updates to the product.

Emphasized the need to see problem invoices first.

UX Update 1 (Vendor Inquiry Home)

Immediate ability to see a default search
Other Search criteria moved to Filters
Ability to search specific Date Ranges
Range drop down to auto fill common ranges
Universal data set search for Invoice or Check
Ability to go to Invoice or Check Details from Table
Ability to go immediately to Problem Invoices

Reach Features

Quick Stats - needs further research and ability for Vendor to set the metrics to time and items they prefer.

UX Update 2 (Associate Sign)

Ability to search VBU by Name or VBU number

Reach Features

Ability to select mulitple VBU’s or a set of VBU’s belonging to a single vendor.