Keep supplier requests moving when staff change

What this means for your practice

Keep ownership, outstanding work and account administration documented inside the operating process. A portal should remain usable when a key individual is unavailable.

What to ask before you choose

Hand a fictional supplier relationship to a deputy. Can they find outstanding documents, upcoming reviews and support contacts from the normal working records? Include account administration. The practical test is whether the next person can continue without relying on the previous owner's private recollection.

Test a handover using the normal records

Choose a supplier with a mixture of open requests, accepted documents and an upcoming review. Ask the deputy to find the current position using the portal and agreed supporting records, without help from the usual owner. Anything they cannot establish becomes a practical improvement for the handover process.

Include account administration and support contacts, because continuing the work may require more than reading the request list. The deputy should know who can approve access changes and where to report a fault. Do not rely on passing around a personal login. Follow one outstanding request to see who receives the next reply and how responsibility is updated. If a decision is waiting for someone else, make that dependency clear. Review open work before a planned departure and confirm that the replacement has accepted it. A useful portal makes continuity possible through its everyday records; it should not require a separate reconstruction of months of private messages whenever one employee changes role.

How to check the result

Count open requests dependent on a departed owner.