Your Guide to Managing Vendors

Computerworld - Once, I was trying to interview a CIO in his office, but his phone kept ringing every few minutes with sales calls. He'd pick up the phone, bark some command like "Mail me some stuff" and slam down the phone to resume our interview. I've also heard tales of vendor reps roaming the halls -- not only the halls of the IT shop, but of the executive suite, too, trying to bend the ear of the chief financial officer.

It's time to take control, or else the vendors will control you. This special report will give you ideas for being more assertive. You'll learn how to set up a vendor management office, negotiate contracts and screen those calls!

I know -- the vendors want to be your "partner," as they say. CIOs fall into three camps on this notion: those who want vendors to be partners, those who see vendors as adversaries and those who take the middle ground. "I use the word partner very carefully," says Jean Holley, CIO at Tellabs. "Of all the companies we do business with, only a handful are partners that we share our strategy with."

My view is that in a capitalist society, buyers and sellers are supposed to have arm's-length transactions, not sweetheart deals. That doesn't mean people have to be nasty, only prudent. As IT negotiating expert Joe Auer says: "It's a fantasy that it's a partnership. Vendors use the term all the time, but about the only way it's really a partnership is that you divide things down the middle -- they take all the money, you take all the risk."

Mitch Betts is Computerworld's executive editor. Contact him at mitch_betts@computerworld.com.

Guide to Managing Vendors Stories in this report: Guide to Managing Vendors Getting to Know You How to Create a Vendor Management Office Skills for the Vendor Management Office Tough Tactics Cold-Call Cascade Go 'Glocal' Data Points: Vendor Management Tips for Dealing With Sales Calls Vendor Management Tips: Getting the Best Deal Vendor Management Tips: Advance power Plays Vendor Management Tips: Building Relationships Vendor Management Tips: The Details