Supplier Portal: How to Get Your Suppliers on Board with Digital Commerce
You can have the world's best procurement system — but if your suppliers aren't on board, it doesn't help much. Manual catalogue maintenance, paper invoices and email orders drag your business down to your suppliers' lowest pace. Fortunately, supplier onboarding is easier than ever today, and most suppliers actually prefer digital commerce — they just don't always know how to get started.
In this article we show how to onboard suppliers to digital commerce without losing them, what motivates suppliers, and how modern supplier portals — like Vieri Leverandørportal — make the process easy for both parties.
Key takeaways
- • Suppliers prefer digital commerce when made easy — not when it creates extra work
- • The PEPPOL network gives suppliers access to 70,000+ buyers without custom integration
- • A good supplier portal turns catalogue upload into a 10-minute job, not an IT project
- • Typical onboarding time with Vieri Leverandørportal: 2–4 weeks from invitation to first EHF invoice
Why suppliers are the bottleneck
Most organisations underestimate how dependent procurement digitalisation is on the supplier side. You implement a new procurement system, and the procurement team is ready. But when you place orders, you discover that the supplier still sends invoices as PDF via email, has no structured catalogue, and requires ordering through their own portal with separate credentials.
The result is that the procurement system becomes an isolated island with limited value. The only way to solve this is to actively work on the supplier side.
What suppliers actually want
A common argument from suppliers is: "we don't have time for more digitalisation." Understandable — especially for SMB suppliers with small IT resources. But when you dig deeper, you discover most suppliers actually want:
- Faster payment: EHF invoices are typically paid 5–10 days faster than PDF invoices
- Fewer errors: Structured orders eliminate misunderstandings and returns
- Less administration: No need to manually enter orders from email
- Better customer relationships: Visibility in the buyer's system means more orders
When you present onboarding as a benefit to the supplier — not as a task you impose on them — the response changes dramatically.
PEPPOL — the easiest path for most suppliers
The PEPPOL network has fundamentally changed the onboarding equation. If the supplier already sends EHF invoices via PEPPOL (which every supplier to the Norwegian public sector must do), they need no integration with Vieri specifically. They send the invoice to your PEPPOL ID, and it automatically lands in your Vieri system.
For suppliers not yet on PEPPOL: Most accounting systems (Visma, Tripletex, PowerOffice, Fiken, 24SevenOffice) have built-in PEPPOL support. Activation often takes less than an hour.
How Vieri Leverandørportal works
Vieri Leverandørportal gives your suppliers three main functions:
1. Catalogue upload and maintenance
The supplier uploads the product catalogue as Excel, CSV or PEPPOL catalogue. Vieri validates automatically and distributes to all buyers with access. When prices change, the catalogue is updated in one place — not 50.
2. Order receipt and confirmation
When a buyer orders, the order appears in the supplier's portal. The supplier can confirm, adjust or reject — everything logged and sent back automatically to the buyer's system as order confirmation.
3. Invoicing via PEPPOL
When goods are delivered, the supplier can invoice directly from the portal. The invoice is automatically PEPPOL-formatted and sent to the buyer's system for 3-way matching.
💡 Did you know?
Vieri Leverandørportal has over 200 active suppliers in the Nordics today. Suppliers connect over PEPPOL, and many use the portal with several of their customers — not only Vieri customers.
A practical 5-step onboarding plan
- Prioritise the most important suppliers. Don't try to onboard everyone at once. Start with the 20% of suppliers who represent 80% of your spend.
- Send a personal invitation. Not an automated "no-reply" email. Call or write personally: "We've adopted Vieri and want to make ordering with you easier."
- Offer concrete support. Show how the portal works. Offer to help with the first catalogue upload. Vieri provides free onboarding support for your suppliers — use it.
- Make invoicing easy. If the supplier already sends EHF, give them your PEPPOL ID immediately. If not, show how they activate PEPPOL in their accounting system in 10 minutes.
- Measure and communicate. After 3 months: share statistics with the supplier. How many orders digitised? What's the average delivery time? Concrete numbers strengthen the relationship.
Common supplier objections — and how to address them
"We don't have time to learn a new system"
Answer: You learn the portal in 10 minutes. We offer a free onboarding call so you get familiar with the features.
"We have our own accounting system"
Answer: You can keep using it. PEPPOL connects the systems — you send and receive via your familiar interface.
"What does it cost?"
Answer: The portal has a price for the supplier. We go through price and terms before you start, so you know what it costs.
"How secure is it?"
Answer: Documents travel through Vieri Connect, a DFØ-approved PEPPOL access point, instead of as PDFs by email.
Want to read more? See how 3-way matching automates invoice handling, or why PEPPOL is the backbone of modern B2B commerce.
Get your suppliers on board
We help your suppliers with onboarding — from first invitation to first EHF invoice. Book a demo and see how it works.
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