Spotting and combining duplicate supplier records all within your Atamis platform.
Duplicate supplier data is a well known challenge for eSourcing solutions. It’s also a significant frustration for the procurement teams we support. From sending contracts to the wrong contact to making duplicate payments, bad data can derail even the best procurement strategies.
That’s why Atamis has launched our new integration: Supplier Deduplication & Merge. It’s designed to give you a clean, trusted supplier base data without the manual hassle.
We sat down with our Product Director, Gareth Burch, to talk about the real-world challenges this tool solves, why we introduced it and how it helps procurement teams work faster, smarter and with greater confidence.
Q: What was the challenge we kept seeing in procurement teams that made us prioritise this tool?
Duplicate supplier records might not sound like a huge problem, but they create ripple effects across procurement operations. Procurement teams are under pressure, suppliers can be referred to by trading names, shortened names and abbreviations; creating a risk to our users who may accidentally create multiple records. Over time, that fragmented data leads to wasted time, compliance risks and even costly mistakes like sending the wrong contract to the wrong supplier.
Now more than ever, data quality is critical to driving business productivity and staying competitive. We're excited to partner with Atamis to deliver an integrated data quality solution that unlocks the full potential of a unified supplier view.
Mark Cane Clear MDM Founder
Q: How big of an issue are duplicate supplier records for organisations?
For larger organisations especially, it can be significant. Inconsistent supplier data can undermine everything from spend analysis to contract management. If you can’t trust your supplier data, you can’t be confident in the insights you’re using to make decisions and in procurement, that’s a real problem.
Q: Can you share an example scenario where duplicate records caused issues?
Imagine a supplier risk is identified and the team works hard to mitigate and resolve in line with the organisation’s risk controls. Only to find that later on there is another contract with the supplier record which has been set up inaccurately. It exposes procurement teams to risks and hard work at the point of time where risks are identified is called into question. This creates business challenges on the quality of the process and data in procurement. All that good work is quickly undermined.
Q: Why launch this tool now?
Two main reasons: client demand and timing. We’ve heard consistently from our users that clean, reliable supplier data is a real priority especially as more procurement teams shift towards strategic, insight-led decision making. On top of that, regulatory expectations around data accuracy are only increasing. This was the perfect moment to provide a simple, integrated way to address the problem. Working with our partner Clear MDM to deliver this functionality to Atamis clients has allowed us to bring this solution to market quickly and smoothly.
Q: How does this tool fit into our bigger vision for trusted, centralised supplier data?
Supplier data is the backbone of effective procurement. If the data is wrong or messy, every downstream process (sourcing, contract management, supplier performance tracking) suffers. This tool is part of our ongoing commitment to helping our clients create a single source of truth for supplier information.
Q: In simple terms, how does the tool work?
The integration scans your supplier database, looking for records that could be duplicates, it scans things like similar names, addresses, DUNS numbers or other key identifiers. When it finds a match, it flags it as a possible duplicate for review. You can then merge those records with the click of a button into one comprehensive supplier profile, so all the history, documents and contact information are placed under a master record, giving teams a single, consolidated view.
Q: How do we make sure nothing important gets lost in the merge?
We’ve partnered with Clear MDM to provide the functionality necessary to ensure records can be merged but not overwritten. The tool consolidates all linked documents, contacts and contract details into the new master record so nothing falls through the cracks. It’s about bringing information together, not overwriting it.
Q: What are the biggest benefits users will notice straight away?
First, speed. It will provide you with a comprehensive match rate on suppliers and contacts. Allowing you to know your current position. Second, confidence. You can trust the information you’re looking at is accurate and up to date. And third, reduced risk. Accurately monitoring risk on suppliers, with a consolidated services and risk exposure to your business.
Q: Beyond saving time, what risks does this help mitigate for procurement teams?
It reduces risks across procurement, provides you a true view of goods and services with a supplier. Allowing procurement to not only mitigate risk, but at the same time maximise value.
Q: If you had to sum up the purpose of this tool in one sentence, what would it be?
It’s about giving procurement teams clean, trusted supplier data – so they can focus on strategic work, not firefighting.
Q: What’s your message to clients who’ve been struggling with duplicate supplier data?
You’re not alone – it’s a problem across the industry. The important thing is, it’s now an easy problem to solve. With Atamis’ new integration: Supplier Deduplication & Merge, you can take control of your supplier data and feel confident every time you use it.
Watch the video below to preview Atamis Supplier Deduplication & Merge
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Find out more about Atamis’ newest integration: Supplier Deduplication & Merge.