The vendor-gate is where the engagement for new and expanded business opportunities begins. Suppliers wanting to supply goods and services to a major corporation have to start at the same entry point. Major buying organizations staff the vendor-gate with managers responsible for reporting the progress of the corporations' supplier engagement efforts.

These staffers assigned to the supplier entry point provide a cursory review of prospective vendors before making any referrals to internal buyers or influential executives. Accordingly, this badge of honor recognizes these staff members as the official vendor-gate managers. They are entirely responsible for making sound referrals to other departments, while maintaining integrity of the company's supply resources program.

If the aforementioned general description worked as smoothly as it sounds, discrimination and the need for fair supplier programs would be obsolete. The vendor-gate specialist does not always work with true consistent processes. They yield several levels of business determination, serving as a filter for new suppliers.

The first filter is the most inconsistent within major buying entities. Although inconsistently applied, it imposes the most common language among all public and private organizations. The vendor-gate keeper expresses the question, "is your company certified?" The business enterprise responses vary from yes, by a couple of agencies, to pending and all the way to no certification. However, no matter what the response, the vendor-gate keeper will raise a more recent requirement of certification in order to moderate the progression before any referral is given to proceed with selling procedures.

Second, the vendor-gate manager will then proceed with the company's general supplier application that is common to all new suppliers. Once the application is complete, the prospective supplier is then added to the company's database. This database in inconsistently accessed by the entire organization, and in most cases does not grant open access to contracting opportunities that are germane to the supplier's service capabilities.

Surprisingly, too often you find buyers using manual methods to maintain contact with suppliers, despite of the updated software available for effective sourcing techniques. Buyers like to refer to these quick personal supplier references as their 'go to' list of proven vendors of choice.

Third, providing the prospective supplier makes the appropriate follow-up inquiries, the vendor-gate manager researches buyer-seller matching potentials. If there appears to be a match between the services provided and corporate operational requirements, the vendor-gate staff will attempt to make the appropriate reference calls for referrals. Occasionally, the vendor-gate staff member will make contact and the matching program has a good start.

The matching process is predicated on the level of the vendor-gate manager's knowledge of their respective organization. Which is why the most frequent and common matching occurs with the general low-tech products and services like office supplies, building maintenance, safety equipment, and fleet products. The unfortunate part of this successful pairing is that large prime vendors that hold long-term contracts most often absorb these items, and the best opportunity will center on bidding as a second-tier contractor.