Zen and The Art of IT Supply Partner Management

Engage, Ensure and Enhance-

"I spend more time with my
supplier than spouse, value their words more than my mentor and pray for the
longing and friendly relationship more than that I expect from my best
friend." -

Uttered my CIO friend with assurance of unanimity. And I
think this is the voice most of the CIO community member would like to make with
great pride, surprise and suspense. The love and hate relationship that exists
between the enterprise CIO and vendors (they hate to be called, so please now on
— please call them partner), will have more counts on bitterness side than the
happy ending family movie melodrama. No CIO can resist of living life without
supplier, yet would love to keep them at bay.

CIO's spend more than 15 per cent of their time interacting
with the supplier and that's quite substantial considering the multi-faceted
role and priorities they have to handle to manage the enterprise technology
platform.

There aren't any bulletproof formulae for no-nonsense and
optimized vendor management yet we can strive our continuous effort to evolve
the mechanism which helps derive the best deal and happy concurring relationship
with the partner. If you avoid or take the relationship for granted be ready for
directing and producing the stepped-up version of blockbuster thriller 'Sleeping
with Enemies'.

ENGAGE

Choosing the partner for IT supplies delves with the
complication that derives on the nature, length and complexity of service one
intends to purchase from the vendor. Like, for utility and appliances then the
cost and availability can be given greater importance but when you are shopping
for the enterprise applications then vendors credentials, financials, success
stories, domain expertise and many other generic as well as industry specific
facts needs careful evaluation.

"Careful evaluation of credentials, ability and
inclination to deliver, technical strength, operating principals, financial
power, support infrastructure and flexibility of partner can play great role in
creating and sustaining the value proposition from the supplier for immediate
and long term benefit from the enterprise It deployment," opined
Venkatachalam N of Millennium Infozone.

To provide the comprehensiveness and specific the following
factor will certainly help in engaging the best partner:

• The credential, ability to deliver, technical strength, equation with
  principals, financial health, clientele, support infrastructure and
  elasticity of partner must be researched even before asking for the
  Request For Quotation (RFQ).
• Use your peer and counsel to check the credential of the supplier.
  Usually the list that's provided by business partner includes the
  clients where they expect to receive the favorable reply. Methods like,
  creating personal rapport with the referred organization can give true
  picture. Most of the time negative experiences are not included in the
  client list.
• To enhance the TCO and better ROI one must negotiate the initial
  purchase cost as well as ongoing maintenance cost. Many partners offer the
  lower purchase cost but the cost of maintenance charged by them is sky
  rocking. The instant example of this is the printers where you pay very
  little sum when buying but the cost of toner is mind-boggling.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) play great role to provide standard and
  expected result delivery and avoid future conflicts. However, many a times
  it is just a piece of paper that goes into the filing cabinet and one does
  not either refer or measure the clauses and deliverable parameters on
  ongoing basis. The SLA should also include the clause for penalties for
  failing the meet performance agreement and poison pill clause or
  guarantees of services in case the vendor is acquired.
• Most of the time one needs additional feature addition to maximize the
  benefit and enhance usability, the careful evaluation of features,
  upgrades and enhancements possibility can provide longevity and better
  life cycle of the product.
• Especially for enterprise application purchase the customization feature
  requires attention. Every enterprise has some unique factors where
  software needs to be customized to better suit the need. Key customization
  requirement should be noted in advance. The vendor readiness, cost and
  consequence of customization should be evaluated and included in the SLA
  prior to engaging the vendor. Many projects fail due to supplier's
  inability to affect the customization.
• Free offerings like training, knowledge transfer, consulting,
  installation support, etc. should be decided.
• The payment schedule should be defined in a manner that balances the
  deliverables and expected results. Many CIO invite trouble by paying the
  vendor in advance.

ENSURE

Measuring the performance of vendor on ongoing basis is
quite crucial. Most of maintenance vendor provides clause for monthly /
quarterly preventive maintenance but the same never accomplished in reality.
Consider the large IT installation and you need to keep vigil on supplier for
preventive maintenance will be daunting task to manage in the current complex
IT infrastructure setup.

• Whenever one get into situation where the project implementation starts
  failing and with careful evaluation it is concluded that the suppliers and
  partners are responsible for the failure — evangelize the converged and
  coordinated effort to put together those parties responsible for the
  failure. Emphasize your corrective measures much before you plunge.
• Check for the supplier credential and their support system for ensuring
  the preventive maintenance and any other factor that's crucial to upkeep
  the deployed technology or solution.
• Quality of Service especially the expertise and behavior of support
  personnel. Most of troubles created by un-experienced or less experienced
  engineer. The attitude and behavior of support engineer creates kiosk in
  user mind and makes them feel un-secured and taken for granted.
• Within the enterprise create system and responsiveness by which the
  events and alerts are reported whenever crucial supports are not carried
  out.

ENHANCE

"Our schedule includes regular meeting with the crucial
supplier and exploring the possibilities and new offerings that can extend value
to our solution. This helps understand and balance the expectations and wishes
of both side," states a CIO.

Do your supplier looking forward for the association that's
going to add value to his enterprise portfolio? Is the relationship you have
with your supplier providing cordial and fruitful outcome to both side? Do you
remember when last you met your supplier and did he tell you of the value
enhancements offering he wishes to add in your enterprise?

If you answer "YES" then there are chances that you
will continue to get the optimum result from the solutions you have purchased
from the vendor. If your answer is "NO" then be ready with the willing
and finances of the version 2 of mega blockbuster " " (refer the first
paragraph of this article).

CIO needs to provide strategic importance to the supplier
management. This will benefit to get best out of the deal as well as require
less stress and valuable time of CIO on day-to-day basis.