Supplier Relationship Management turns an Excel list into a strategic lever. Here's how to set up a solid supplier registry and scoring that actually informs your decisions.
Procura team · May 2026 · 7 min readIn a typical African SME, suppliers are scattered. An Excel file for accounting, a Word file for contacts, business cards in drawers, emails across several inboxes.
This dispersion is expensive. It creates duplicates (the same supplier entered under two spellings), it blocks volume negotiation (no way to see that we're buying from 4 different stationery vendors), and it complicates tax audits (no way to produce a complete supplier list on demand).
A central registry holds, for each supplier: contact details, tax ID, bank or Mobile Money details, business registration, accepted currencies, default payment terms, category, transaction history, and up-to-date legal documents.
Every new supplier goes through a qualification workflow before they're cleared to receive a PO.
Step 1: initial entry by the requester (name, contact, rationale). Step 2: collection of mandatory documents (business registration, tax ID certificate, bank details, tax compliance attestation). Step 3: validation by procurement, who checks the paperwork. Step 4: sign-off by the CFO, who validates the economic case.
Once qualified, the supplier can receive POs. Before qualification, no transaction is possible. That discipline eliminates maverick spend and guarantees documentary compliance.
A qualified supplier doesn't stay frozen. Their performance evolves, and the system has to measure it continuously.
Four foundational scoring axes. Lead time: share of orders delivered on the promised date. Invoice compliance: share of invoices that are clean on the first pass (no credit notes, no corrections, no disputes). Responsiveness: average time to respond to inquiries (quote, status, claim). Price: position relative to the market (benchmarked on recurring purchases).
Each axis is scored 0-100 and aggregated into a global score. Over a rolling 12 months, scoring becomes a decision tool: who are my 5 best suppliers? Who are the 3 at risk? Who should I shortlist first for the next purchase?
A Pareto analysis on the last twelve months almost always reveals that the majority of spend sits on a minority of suppliers. Identifying that core is the first step toward negotiation.
On those priority suppliers, three savings levers. First, negotiate framework terms (volume rebates, early-payment discounts, logistics terms). Second, consolidate scattered purchases (drop from four stationery vendors to two and direct volume to them). Third, sign medium-term contracts to stabilize prices.
This procure-to-pay discipline is recognized by CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) as a fundamental of structured sourcing.
Modern SRM doesn't stop at the internal registry. It extends visibility to the suppliers themselves through a dedicated portal.
For the supplier, the portal lets them see their POs in real time, submit invoices electronically, track payment status, and download supporting documents. The service drastically reduces emails and phone calls.
For the SME, the portal cuts supplier-support load drastically (PO and payment status questions, which consume a lot of admin time) and improves document quality since suppliers enter their own information.
See how Procura digitizes your SYSCOHADA procurement cycle, from request to payment.