Suppliers and Contractors

What are suppliers and contractors? 

Suppliers and contractors are both types of vendors to your organisation. A vendor is anyone who supplies goods or services to your organisation, whether the items supplied go directly into the product or service, or are consumed by support services within your organisation.

A supplier will provide and sell commercially available commodities, products or services. They are sold to a range of customers or services that are required for their chain of business.

In broad terms a contractor will supply a specialised service usually in a contract situation.  A simple example is that an external Plumber is a contractor to your organisation.

Why are suppliers and contractors important? 

Suppliers and contractors are important to any business, as they have the ability to significantly impact the way your organisation operates.

Without reliable suppliers and/or contractors to your company, you will struggle to pull together relevant materials and services needed to help you with the production side of your organisation. 

If you have a good relationship with them, suppliers and contractors will ensure that the material and resources you are after are delivered on time and of high quality every time.  This will result in an increase of customer satisfaction, due to your products and services continuously being of high quality and avoiding any defects. 

Having a good relationship with suppliers and contractors will ultimately save money for your company, due to less switching costs of suppliers and the ability to negotiate with them when needed.   

Related Questions: 

• What is Supplier evaluation?
• How do you manage Contractors and Suppliers?
• Why is Supplier Management critical to my business success?