Glossary · Roles and parties

Supplier

A supplier is any external organisation that provides goods or services to your business under a commercial arrangement.

Full definition

Supplier is defined as: A supplier is any external organisation that provides goods or services to your business under a commercial arrangement.

Supplier is the broadest term in this space. It covers everything from a stationery reseller to a strategic outsourcing partner. The word says nothing about criticality or risk on its own - that comes from segmentation.

In many organisations supplier is used interchangeably with vendor. Where the distinction matters, supplier tends to imply an ongoing service and vendor a one-off product sale.

Questions and answers

Put it into practice

Manage supplier in Credbase.

Credbase brings every supplier document into one workspace, tracks expiry dates for you and turns the whole set into a shareable evidence pack. Free to start, no card required.