In supply chain terms, suppliers sit on the buying side of your business. When a manufacturer, retailer or distributor buys, it runs a procure-to-pay process with each supplier: a purchase order, an acknowledgment, changes, an advance ship notice, receipt and an invoice.
Supplier vs vendor is mostly a matter of convention. Retailers often say vendor, as in vendor compliance and vendor scorecards, and many ERP systems keep a vendor master for accounts payable. Manufacturers often say supplier for the companies that provide parts and materials. Some organizations use supplier for strategic, long-term relationships and vendor for transactional ones, but the role in the order flow is the same.
Supplier performance shapes your own service. A late confirmation, an inaccurate shipment notice or a wrong invoice becomes a missed delivery or a payment dispute further down the chain. That is why companies set clear requirements, measure suppliers with a supplier scorecard and invest in supplier enablement, so every supplier can transact digitally, whether it uses EDI or not.