resource center
  See your link here
|
Subscribe to Computerworld Computerworld -
There are predictable stages in how companies go about selecting and managing vendors, says Bart Perkins, former CIO at Dole Food Co. and Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. who is now managing partner at Leverage Partners Inc., a consulting firm based in Louisville, Ky., and Washington. Leverage Partners helps companies acquire IT products and services.
The first step in improving your approach to vendor selection is to honestly assess where your company stands. The majority of Fortune 500 companies are currently at Levels 1 and 2, he says. A few have reached Level 3. Level 4 is still a distant goal for most.
Level 1: Ad hoc procurement. Every deal is a one-off—an immediate reaction to a problem. You just find a piece of hardware, software or professional service and negotiate. You're not thinking about how the pieces fit.
Level 2: Supplier management, one at a time. You're starting to get more formal in your way of approaching this. You have some processes in place. You're beginning to have a sourcing strategy.
Level 3: Supplier integration. You have multiple suppliers around a business program. For example, you put in SAP and you need SAP software, servers, new desktops and systems integrators to help get it installed, and you might have to re-engineer some business processes. You're trying to figure out how to integrate them so that they all push the project forward rather than elbow one another for a bigger piece of the pie.
Level 4: High-performance supplier management. Your supply chain is optimized and integrated with e-business. You can track the status and capability of any vendor, product or service along with its relationship to other components. But it's a Holy Grail for most IT departments. "We just don't see people there," Perkins says.
How to Choose an IT Vendor:
How to Choose an IT Vendor
Where Do You Fit?
A Truly Global HCM System
Learn about a system built with advanced object-oriented technology that support multi-national requirements and costs less to implement, maintain and upgrade....
Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....
Moving Beyond Monolithic - What's Next for Enterprise Application Architectures?
This white paper reviews the current state of enterprise application architecture and presents a prediction on what might come next....
SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....
The Shortcut Guide to Managing Certificate Lifecycles
(Source: Thawte) If you have ever shopped for a certificate, you know that there is a wide selection of products and vendors from...
Agile Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for Rapid ROI
Find out how combining ECM and BPM will help adress issues about content rich business processes....
MarketVibe: Communications and Collaboration Needs at Business Organizations
In April 2009, IT and business leaders were invited to participate in a survey on business communications and collaboration solutions. The goal of...
Modernizing the IT Infrastructure
(Source: Oracle) There is a lot of legacy in many government IT systems today - legacy hardware, legacy software platforms, and legacy skills...
The Value of Network and Application Visibility by Aberdeen
This survey-based paper analyzes best practices for improving application visibility and analysis. This paper can help serve as a guideline for organizations looking...
Taking the Service Desk to the Next Level
Listen to this conversation with Doug Mueller to learn how standards and processes have evolved to bring us the service desk of today...
Sign up to receive updates on the latest Management resources
CIO
Computerworld
CSO
DEMO
GamePro
Games.net
IDC
IDG
IDG Connect
IDG Knowledge Hub
IDG TechNetwork
IDG Ventures
IDG.net
InfoWorld
ITwhitepapers
ITworld
JavaWorld
LinuxWorld
Macworld
Network World
PC World
The Industry Standard
Copyright © 1994 - 2009 Computerworld Inc. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission ofComputerworld Inc. is prohibited. Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are trademarks of International Data Group Inc. |
