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When I look at the IT Department of organisations I often ask about the Suppliers that the department is using and how they are managed. Often the answers are not good. Zombie contracts which have been in place for years, sometimes not even a contract in place. So here are some tips for managing your suppliers to get the best from them and also to get the best value.
If nothing else, a competitive tender ensures that the supplier needs to work to get your business. You will get better pricing and the supplier will be more engaged with you pre-contract, if they know they are bidding against someone else.
It is important to understand how quickly issues are going to fixed and when the vendor can be contacted. For some organisations, Monday – Friday 9-5pm is fine. But for others, out of hours is very important and for multi-nationals access from different time zones is also important.
You want your suppliers to be successful with you. Part of that is monitoring their performance and provide them with feedback (and listen to their feedback of your organisation) to ensure you are getting the best performance from them.
Some IT people see regular meetings with the supplier as a simply the account manager coming to try and sell you more (and that may be true!) but a regular meeting, where the account manager reports back on their performance, issues that they are having with you is important to keep you (and them) happy. And, it is an opportunity to find out what new things they have, what their roadmap is for their product and how it can be exploited within your organisation. What is in the new version? What can it do for you?
Look for opportunities to reduce costs
Monitoring performance and regular account meetings will give you the opportunity to review what you are using and what you are not using. Do you have too many licenses? Do you have “Gold Support” when you don’t ever use it? These may be opportunities to reduce the costs of the services they provide. It is also something to ask the account manager… How can I reduce the cost of your service?
Never just sign a new contract. They may (or may not) be the best price. But what other services / software are other suppliers offering? Is your current supplier keeping up with their competitors? IT is a fast moving industry. It always pays to look around.