Reinventing Vendor Collaboration with Dynamics 365 Supplier Engagement

Microsoft just released its new Dynamics 365 Supplier Engagement app and portal in public preview. Until now, vendor collaboration was fully managed within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (SCM). Vendor contacts could have access as an external user to a limited set of features using the Dynamics 365 SCM user interface. In this post, you will get an introduction to the new Supplier Engagement features.

Private preview

Around this time in 2025, I got a presentation from Microsoft with their plans for a new Supplier Engagement app and portal. The new features got my attention. Instead of providing direct access to vendors in your ERP system, a portal based on Power Pages was introduced. In addition, they talked about global vendors, a concept I will explain in this blog. As I managed the Master Data Management features before while I worked at STAEDEAN (formerly To-Increase), I was interested in how much this could be a base or have an overlap.

I got accepted into the private preview and worked closely with the team to provide feedback on the deployment experience, the features, and reported bugs. Twice a week, there were office hours where we could ask questions and share experiences and thoughts. At the Nordic Summit in September 2025, I met Ted Ohlsson for the first time in person. It appeared that he also joined the private preview for one of his clients. It was not only Ted and me in the program. Also, some other clients and partners joined the office hours from time to time. Initially, the time for releasing Supplier Engagement as a public preview was before DynamicsMinds 2026 in May. Then I asked Ted to join for a speaker session. The public preview got moved back in time, and we asked for permission to speak about the features while they were still in private preview. We got the approval, provided having a non-disclosure slide, and no recordings or photos were allowed. We had two monitors in the room where we demonstrated the features as a buyer and an external vendor, so people could follow the full flow from features in Dynamics 365 and the external portal.

Now, the features are in public preview, and we are allowed to talk and write about Supplier Engagement. Let’s start with an introduction to Supplier Engagement.

Supplier Engagement introduction and architecture

As mentioned in the introduction, the vendor collaboration portal was fully built within Dynamics 365 SCM. External users had to learn to work with the Dynamics 365 user interface. The URL of your production environment was shared with your vendors. In case of incorrect customizations or security settings, the vendors would have been exposed to data they were not intended to see. So, this also comes with a security risk. With the new architecture, the vendor contacts will have access to a portal based on Power Pages. Not only is this separated from your ERP, but the user interface is easier to learn and understand. Vendors are now able to access all data across different legal entities without the need to switch between your legal entities.

A Supplier Engagement app is provided as a model-driven application where internal users can manage the onboarding of vendor registrations and global vendors. The application supports the process from supplier registration and onboarding to global supplier management using qualifications and approvals. An advantage of using a Power App based on Dataverse is that it allows for using other customer engagement features, such as managing activities.

Dynamics 365 SCM will be used for managing the vendors per legal entity, purchase orders, and requests for quotations. This is the same process as in use today.

The architecture is visualized in the picture below.

Data is stored in Dynamics 365 F&O or Dataverse, where integrations are managed via web services and virtual entities. For this solution, there is no Dual-Write technology used, as there is hardly any overlap of tables where data is stored in both databases.

Global vendors

The term Global vendor was already mentioned above. A global vendor in Dynamics 365 is a single party with vendor-specific master data that can be used as a vendor in multiple legal entities. Information related to onboarding questions and vendor contacts is managed centrally. Reviewing and approving a vendor is a global activity. Once approved, a vendor can be released as a local vendor in a specific legal entity. The global contacts and portal access are managed in the Supplier Engagement application. The Global Vendor concept primarily improves master data management and supplier governance in organizations operating multiple legal entities.

Global vendors can be created in three ways:

• Self-registration using the supplier portal
• Manually add the vendor in the Supplier Engagement application
• Convert a local vendor in Dynamics 365 to a global vendor

A new global vendor is initially considered a prospect. You can convert the status to qualified. Once it reaches this status, the vendor can be released to individual legal entities. From the global vendor, you can manage the hold status. If you put a global vendor on hold, all local vendors in the individual legal entities will also be blocked. When required, you can still manage or override the hold status per vendor per legal entity.

When creating a global vendor from an existing local vendor, you also need to check for duplicate parties in the application. It is recommended to first merge parties before converting the local vendor(s) to a global vendor. For global vendors, contact details, such as email addresses, will be checked for duplicates.

Onboarding vendors

There are two options to start the onboarding of new vendors:

• Self registration
• Internal registration

Self registration

The vendor can use a registration page on the vendor portal. On this page, the vendor can provide basic information such as the company name, contact details, company details, Capabilities, Certifications, and additional comments.

Once the page is submitted by the vendor contact, the request is received as a registration request.

An internal user can start reviewing the details and approve it to be added as a global vendor with the status Prospect.

Internal registration

A global vendor can be created by an internal user. The user can add contact details and invite the vendor to continue with the onboarding process via the supplier portal.

Onboarding process

The vendor contact will now need to log in to the supplier portal to complete the onboarding process. They need to provide detailed information, like addresses, contact details, certifications, capabilities, and complete a questionnaire with additional information inquiries. As part of the Supplier Engagement application, the configuration section allows you to manage the available certifications, capabilities, and questions part of the assessment.

All information provided by the vendor will be reviewed before the global vendor is approved and can be pushed to individual legal entities.

Supported operational processes

At this time, the Supplier Engagement feature supports 4 operational processes for collaboration between the buyer and the vendor. During the private preview, some additional feedback was provided for additional features. During the presentation at DynamicsMinds we also got questions, which we brought back to Microsoft. The module will be initially released with the current features. After the first release, Microsoft will consider expanding the module.

• Request for Quotation
• Purchase Order
• Vendor Invoice
• Consignment Inventory

Request for Quotation

The buyer in Dynamics 365 SCM can create a request for quotation and invite vendors for the bidding process. When the RFQ is sent, it will be visible to the vendor in the portal. The vendor can then decide to start bidding or not. Via the portal the reply details can be provided, which will then be visible in for the buyer in the ERP application after submitting the reply on the RFQ. After evaluation of all replies, a vendor can be chosen and a purchase order will be created.

Purchase order

A purchase order will be initially drafted by the buyer and can be sent to the supplier portal. The vendor can then review the order, accept it, reject it, or suggest changes in the portal. The suggested changes can be reviewed by the buyer, where changes are highlighted. The order can be updated, and the information on the portal will be updated for the vendor. The vendor will then receive the confirmation.

Vendor invoice

With Supplier Engagement, in addition to receiving invoices via an invoice capture solution, EDI, or manually creating the invoice, a vendor can provide an invoice by creating it in the Vendor portal. The invoice can be reviewed by the accounts payable team, routed for approval, and then posted. Regardless of the way how the invoice is created and posted in Dynamics 365 Finance, the vendor can see the posted invoices with the payment status.

Consignment inventory

When you are using consignment stock, the ownership is managed in Dynamics 365 SCM. The vendor has portal insights into the actual consignment inventory and changes.

Start your preview

Supplier Engagement is available in preview. It has started to be available in a few regions. It is currently being expanded to all regions. Via the Power Platform Admin Center, you can check if the Dynamics 365 app with the name Supplier Engagement in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (Preview) is available. By the end of August 2026, the preview will be available in all regions. If the preview is not available in your region and you have available capacity, you can consider creating a Dynamics 365 F&O environment in another region, e.g., the US or Canada. I deployed my first public preview version using an environment in the Canada region. A link to the deployment process is provided below.

In the next blog post, I will share my experiences with the installation and configuration of the Supplier Engagement preview.

There is more…

Microsoft released a blog post and Microsoft Learn information about Supplier Engagement. I aligned with Ted Ohlsson to publish a blog about this topic around the same time. You can find more information here:

Supplier Engagement Module. A detailed guide of all the features in… | by Ted Ohlsson

Supplier Engagement in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is now available in public preview (Microsoft IT Professional Blog)

Supplier Engagement overview (preview) – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

How Supplier Engagement compares to the vendor collaboration interface (preview) – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Supplier Engagement deployment overview, prerequisites, and licensing (preview) – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn