Often times when running Performance Reviews with Suppliers there are several Action Items that need to be followed up with after the fact. With Scout's Action Items functionality you can now set various different Action Items related to a Supplier both internally and externally. 

Setting Action Items will allow you to not only hold Suppliers accountable for their follow up items it will also allow you to set Action items internally for your team that need to be done in relation to the Supplier (i.e. Verifying metrics).

Step 1: Select Supplier

The first thing you are going to want to do is navigate to the Supplier Directory. You can do so by clicking the drop down arrow next to Navigate and click Suppliers: 

This will bring you to your Supplier Directory where you can search for the Supplier and click into their Profile. Click on the Action Items tab to bring you to the Action Item page:

Step 2: Add Action Item

To begin creating Action Items click the Add Action Item button:

Here you can enter a title, description, notes, attach documents, an assignee for the Action Item, a priority level, due date, and reminders for the Action Item:

Note: When selecting the assignee, you can assign it to someone within your company (Internal Action Item) or you can assign it to someone in the Supplier company (External Action Item).

Step 3: Save Action Item

Once you have filled out all of the components of the Action Item click Save to save your Action Item. The person assigned to the Action Item will then be notified via email that they have been assigned an Action item:

It is important to note that all of the Action Items related to this Supplier will remain within the Action Items tab of a Supplier Contact. The Action Items page will be broken down into 3 sections: Internal Action Items, External Action Items, and Completed Action Items. 

You can see in our example below that Buddies (Internal) has one Action Item, AlphaCloud Software (the Supplier) has one Action Item as well, and that no Action Items have been completed by either Company:

Notice that within each Action Item there are the options to Edit, Send Email, and Complete: 

Edit - The Edit button will allow you to edit the current components of the Action Item. 

Send Email - The Send Email button will open up your preferred email system and let you send an email directly to the assignee of the Action Item. 

Complete - The Complete button will mark the Action Item as completed and thus automatically move the Action Item down to the Completed Action Items section. 

Leveraging Action Items will not only bring organization to necessary "To Do's" on both ends it will also help benchmark your Suppliers and give them a chance to improve by executing the Action Items that you have set for them.  

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