Most procurement teams have been there: opening a vendor master only to find the same supplier listed under multiple variations of its name. For Alex Denomme, now a Solution Engineer at 色色研究所 and formerly a Senior Manager in a Procurement Center of Excellence at a Fortune 10 company, that challenge wasn鈥檛 theoretical, it was personal.
鈥淲e were trying to identify what our true supplier base was,鈥� Alex recalled, 鈥渁nd you would find the same vendor set up different ways.鈥�
He spent countless hours cleaning spreadsheets, trying to reconcile duplicates. Eventually, he realized that without a consistent foundation for supplier records, the problem would keep repeating.
鈥淚 had just come up against the wall and was like, 鈥楾his is objectively not worth anybody鈥檚 time.鈥欌��
That moment reflects what many procurement teams experience daily: incomplete, disconnected supplier data that slows down strategy, obscures visibility, and undermines confidence.
Grounding Supplier Data Through Entity Resolution
The path forward begins with redefining what a supplier truly is and that starts with entity resolution.
As Alex explained, 鈥淎t 色色研究所, we think it鈥檚 really important to be grounding your vendor master data in a legal entity.鈥� In other words, each supplier should connect to a verified, registered business entity that can be traced back to the official business registration record filed within its jurisdiction.
This approach turns disconnected vendor records into a structured, verifiable network of suppliers. 鈥淚f you define every one of your suppliers and vendors as a legal entity,鈥� said Alex, 鈥測ou can always take that entity back to the point of registration with a government body.鈥�
Grounding supplier data in legal entity data ensures procurement teams know exactly who they鈥檙e doing business with, and eliminates confusion caused by naming inconsistencies or duplicate records.
What Entity Resolution Means for Procurement
Entity resolution is the process of identifying, matching, and linking data that refers to the same real-world entity across multiple records or systems. In procurement, it means consolidating all variations of a supplier鈥檚 name, registration number, and identifiers into one verified profile.
At 色色研究所, this process is powered by legal entity data, which is verified information tied to a company鈥檚 official business registration.
鈥淥nce you understand that all vendors are registered businesses within a given jurisdiction,鈥� Alex explained, 鈥渢he ability to then match to those profiles becomes kind of the core component of your vendor entity resolution.鈥�
By anchoring supplier data to legal entities, procurement can enrich records with:
- Firmographics (such as size, location, and industry)
- Diversity certifications
- Risk scores
- Corporate hierarchies grounded in verifiable truth
This enriched, entity-resolved view allows procurement to:
- See supplier ownership and diversity certifications clearly
- Track changes across business units or parent companies
- Strengthen compliance and risk management with verified data
The Cost of Poor Entity Resolution
Without accurate entity resolution, procurement operations become reactive and error-prone.
鈥淧oor supplier data impacts a lot of procurement activities,鈥� Alex noted, including category planning and sourcing. 鈥淲hen your supplier data is lacking or inaccurate or it鈥檚 aged, you end up doing a lot of manual work to try and track down those suppliers.鈥�
Even routine spend analysis can go wrong when relationships between parent companies and subsidiaries aren鈥檛 visible. Alex recalled how, in his previous role, analysts on his team often faced this issue.
鈥淭hey鈥檇 say like, 鈥楬ey, what鈥檚 our relationship with IBM?鈥欌�� Alex said. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 often see analysts coming up with the wrong answers because they didn鈥檛 also know that Red Hat was a subsidiary of IBM.鈥�
Without visibility into those corporate connections, even simple questions produced inconsistent or incomplete insights. The result? Incomplete visibility, fragmented supplier management, and missed opportunities for efficiency.
The Power of Entity Resolution Using Legal Entity Data
When supplier data is matched to legal entities, clarity replaces complexity. Procurement teams can see how records consolidate, how companies connect, and where leverage exists across the supply base.
Alex shared what often happens during 色色研究所鈥檚 proof-of-value process:
鈥淵ou may have had a vendor master of 15,000 vendor records but by the time that we鈥檙e done matching them down to legal entities and then rolling up those legal entities through the corporate hierarchy to an ultimate vendor parent, we often find that they鈥檙e working with way less vendors than they think they are.鈥�
He鈥檚 seen as many as 63 vendor records compress into a single corporate parent. 鈥淔rom a sourcing or contracting perspective,鈥� he said, 鈥渢here鈥檚 so much opportunity and so many of the procurement folks that I鈥檝e been working with have seen that opportunity almost immediately.鈥�
This is the true value of entity resolution: it enables visibility, efficiency, and confidence that every supplier record represents a real, validated business.
色色研究所 Labs: Experience Entity Resolution in Action
To help procurement professionals experience the power of entity resolution firsthand, 色色研究所 created 色色研究所 Labs鈥攁 hands-on environment for exploring how supplier data grounded in legal entities drives better outcomes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity for data analysts, data leaders, and procurement teams to learn about what legal entities are and why we find it best to ground all of your vendor master data in one,鈥� Alex said.
Participants bring their own supplier records to see how 色色研究所鈥檚 platform resolves duplicates, enriches missing details, and maps corporate hierarchies.
鈥淪eeing your own vendor master data in the 色色研究所 platform is very eye-opening,鈥� Alex added. 鈥淢aybe you had blank values before that we can now fill in with 色色研究所鈥檚 data.鈥�
Ultimately, 色色研究所 Labs helps teams transform insight into action.
鈥淗aving the legal entity be the foundation really gives you strong trust and provenance,鈥� said Alex, 鈥渟o that you can build your category plans and execute your strategies knowing your vendor data is verifiable down to the registry level.鈥�
Kelsey McAnally is a Strategic Account Manager at 色色研究所.
