streamline processes<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\nCollect documents, such as insurance and tax details, and ensure your vendor is set up in internal business systems, such as payables. Ensure both parties understand how and when to submit invoices and how you will pay them.<\/p>\n
If your vendor needs access to specific software or programs, ensure they have the right level of access, along with log-in details. This may require some training and knowledge transfer as the vendor learns how your company operates in greater detail.<\/p>\n
Step 5: Tracking IT Vendor Performance<\/h3>\n
When you created the RFQ or RFP, you laid out your company\u2019s needs. Next is an important step in your IT vendor management strategy: It\u2019s time to use those desired outcomes to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your vendor\u2019s performance. Companies often have a dashboard or balanced scorecard approach that helps define and evaluate metrics for everything from cost to delivery, quality and more.<\/strong><\/p>\nCompanies should be fully transparent with their vendors with all expectations and outline an issue resolution process if the project or service hits a snag. Each vendor should understand what metrics you\u2019re evaluating them against and what it means to be successful.<\/p>\n
It may be helpful to schedule meetings in advance, whether they\u2019re weekly, monthly or quarterly, so everyone stays on the same page, and you can communicate and proactively prevent any potential issues early in the process.<\/p>\n
Step 6: Manage Vendor Risk<\/h3>\n
Hiring vendors isn\u2019t without risk. It\u2019s important to understand and mitigate risk as much as possible. Outline potential security, privacy, compliance and other risks and create a framework for how you control risk. Once you flag a risk, list remediation actions if a breach occurs.<\/p>\n
Managing risks, especially for IT, is critical to success. In an increasingly online world, security or compliance risks are common. Take all the necessary steps to ensure your vendor\u2019s performance doesn\u2019t disrupt your business operations and outline steps to take when you\u2019re alerted of a breach.<\/strong><\/p>\nBest practices include to:<\/p>\n
\n- Keep an inventory of vendors<\/li>\n
- Catalog risks<\/li>\n
- Develop a system to assess vendors<\/li>\n
- Create multiple lines of defense against risk, including the ability to audit<\/li>\n
- Define a contingency plan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You may never need a remediation strategy, but having one and keeping it up to date can help protect your reputation and financial security.<\/p>\n
Step 7: Ongoing Vendor Management<\/h3>\n
Once your vendors are in place, it\u2019s critical to manage the relationship. Providing strategy updates and communicating changes to your business\u2019s goals, along with feedback, all are important to keep the partnership one in which both parties benefit.<\/p>\n
\n- Communication is Key:<\/strong> Establish mandatory recurring meetings with vendors. The cadence can be more frequent initially, and then the time between them may naturally grow as both parties understand expectations and know the ropes. Make sure not to leave too much space between meetings, as this is a time to share business priorities, strategies and anything that might impact their work for your company.<\/li>\n
- Strive for a Long-Term Partnership:<\/strong> Ideally, your vendor should be a long-term partner, as changing vendors frequently can impact quality. Ensure both parties understand operating structures and business models, so there are no gaps in services. Creating a long-term partnership is a win-win for both your company and the vendor, which often results in stronger commitment from the vendor, preferential treatment and, ultimately, leads to success.<\/li>\n
- Ensure Value:<\/strong> It\u2019s important to ensure that results are what your vendor promised and contractually agreed to deliver. Keep an eye on other companies or individuals who provide similar services to ensure you\u2019re getting the quality you expect. If you notice complacency beginning to set in, address it immediately. Challenge your vendor to treat you as they would a new customer, striving to meet and exceed set goals and metrics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Vendors provide needed and valued services to the businesses they serve.<\/strong> Outsourcing allows companies to focus on their core business while also maintaining compliance, streamlining processes and creating efficiencies.<\/p>\nCreating a robust IT vendor management strategy is a tall order, but while it\u2019s a lot of work initially, once your framework is in place, your strategy (updated periodically) will benefit your company for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We cover the importance of an IT vendor management strategy to streamline processes, boost efficiencies, control costs and reduce risks inherent to IT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":273,"featured_media":33758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19480,19108],"coauthors":[16865],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-07-21 23:32:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33755"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=33755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}