If your supplier management world currently lives in some combination of:
Excel files named Supplier_list_FINAL_V38_REALLY_FINAL.xlsx
SharePoint folders no one can quite navigate
PDFs buried in email
“Ask Sarah, she has the latest version”
…you’re not alone.
In conversations with procurement and supply chain teams, the same theme comes up again and again: everything is manual, fragmented and buried in spreadsheets/email. Supplier info, onboarding status, contracts and risk data are scattered everywhere. Nothing is truly up to date. And when someone leaves the company, half the context walks out with them.
This isn’t just annoying admin. It’s slower onboarding, higher risk, and shaky audits. It also makes it impossible to do the “strategic” part of procurement when you’re stuck hunting for the basics.
This blog breaks down:
How this pain shows up day‑to‑day
Why spreadsheets + email don’t scale
What “good” supplier management looks like instead
How Kodiak Hub helps you move from chaos to control
Let’s name what’s going on.
Legal name and tax details in ERP
Bank details in a PDF in someone’s inbox
Certificates in a shared drive folder “Quality / OLD / Archive / New”
ESG info in a PowerPoint from a supplier visit
Performance notes in someone’s notebook or head
Every time you need a clear picture of a supplier, you’re stitching together fragments.
On paper, you have an onboarding process. In reality, it’s:
A Word checklist
Email chasers to suppliers for documents
Excel trackers with red/amber/green columns
No clear view of where some suppliers are in the process, or who is blocking it
So onboarding lead times stretch, stakeholders complain, and suppliers get a shaky first impression.
Lots of teams mention “a gap on contract management”:
Agreements stored as PDFs in multiple folders (or someone’s desktop)
No single place to see which contracts are active, expiring, or missing
No link between contract obligations and supplier performance / risk
This is where value leaks: prices drift, terms get forgotten, and renewals happen without a proper review.
Scorecards are often:
Built in Excel, once
Updated manually before a QBR (when someone has time)
Different formats per category or region
Disconnected from actual decisions about allocation or development
So you talk about being performance‑driven, but you can’t consistently prove or act on it.
Each department keeps its own supplier notes and files. When someone leaves, retires, or changes roles, you lose:
Historical context on issues and improvements
Negotiation history
Why certain decisions were made
That’s a huge hidden cost.
Spreadsheets are great for analysis. They’re terrible as systems of record.
No single source of truth – multiple versions, conflicting data.
No governance – anyone can change anything; no audit trail.
No automation – reminders, expiry management, approvals and CAPAs are all manual.
No visibility – leadership can’t see a clear picture across categories, regions or risk tiers.
And here’s the kicker: even the best AI or analytics can’t help you if your data is scattered and stale. If you’re thinking about “AI in procurement”, the first step is getting supplier data out of spreadsheets and into a structured system.
Think about the opposite of the picture above. A modern setup has three core elements:
Every supplier has one profile that holds:
Identity & company structure
Sites, categories and regions served
Onboarding & qualification status
Certificates, insurances, policies, ESG declarations
Risk tier and assessment results
Performance KPIs (OTIF, quality, cost, service)
Contracts and key clauses
Audit history and CAPAs
Everyone – procurement, quality, supply chain, risk, sustainability – works from the same facts.
Key processes are standardised and automated:
Onboarding & re‑qualification
Risk assessments and approvals
Contract review/renewal workflows
Audit planning, execution, and follow‑up
Corrective Action Plan assignment and verification
No more “Did we remember to…?” The system knows the steps, owners, and deadlines.
You can:
See how performance trends relate to risk signals and contract terms
Tie QBR conversations to real data and agreed actions
Shift share‑of‑business based on evidence, not anecdotes
That’s when SRM stops being a buzzword and becomes a real lever.
This is exactly the gap Kodiak Hub was built to fill: turning manual, fragmented supplier management into one collaborative, data‑driven environment.
Here’s how it maps directly to the pain points above.
Kodiak Hub gives you a central supplier information hub:
All supplier info, documents, certificates, insurances and assessments in one platform
Configurable fields and templates per category, region, or risk level
Clear version history and audit trail
No more hunting across ERP, SharePoint, and email threads. You search one place and see the full picture.
Instead of emailing Excel forms, you use guided onboarding:
Risk‑based workflows (lighter for low‑risk, deeper for critical suppliers)
Supplier self‑service portal to upload data & evidence
Automated reminders for missing information and expiring documents
Built‑in approvals and escalation when something is blocked
Result: faster onboarding, less chasing, and a much better experience for both suppliers and internal stakeholders.
Kodiak Hub helps you bring contracts into the supplier story:
Store key contracts and link them to the supplier profile
Capture key clauses and dates (renewals, notice periods, pricing mechanisms)
Tie performance and risk insights back to contracts before renewal
You go into renewals with facts: how the supplier actually performed versus what was written.
Kodiak Hub turns performance management into a repeatable process:
Standardised scorecards across categories, with KPIs like OTIF, PPM, cost variance, and ESG
Automatic data updates from your systems where possible
Easy visual dashboards and supplier league tables
Action plans and CAPAs tracked to closure, with evidence
QBRs stop being “slide marathons” and become true working sessions built around live data.
Because everything lives in the platform – not in someone’s personal folders or head – you keep institutional knowledge even when people move on:
Past audits, issues, and resolutions
Historical performance trends
Negotiation and collaboration history
New team members ramp faster, and nothing crucial disappears with a resignation.
Once the basics are under control, a few powerful things happen:
You free up time – less admin, more time for sourcing, negotiation, and strategic work. You make decisions, not spreadsheets.
You reduce risk – fewer surprises, better documentation, and cleaner audits.
You increase leverage – you can compare suppliers fairly and back decisions with data.
You become a better partner – suppliers get a clearer process and feedback, not random requests and retroactive blame.
And yes, you’re suddenly ready for AI and advanced analytics because your supplier data is structured, current, and explainable.
If this all sounds good but big, here’s a simple starting plan:
Pick 1–2 categories and your top 50–100 suppliers.
Move their data into Kodiak Hub and standardise profiles, documents, and KPIs.
Digitise onboarding & performance reviews just for those suppliers.
Run 1–2 QBR cycles using the platform.
Measure the differences in onboarding time, data quality, and review quality vs. your old way of working.
Once you see it in one slice of the business, scaling becomes a no‑brainer.
If your world today is “Excel, shared folders, and hope,” you don’t need to stay there. Kodiak Hub gives you the central, structured environment your team keeps describing in discovery calls – and the foundation you need to manage suppliers the way you actually want to.