While vendors are essential to helping most businesses succeed, learning how to manage your IT providers is critical to ensuring that you get the most out of your partnerships and that your organization is in the best possible position to thrive.
Failure to adhere to best practices when managing your information technology vendors can have a detrimental impact on your company’s bottom line. Here are four effective practices for managing IT vendors in the information technology industry.
1. Conduct a Needs Analysis
The first step in the IT vendor management process is understanding how to select the ’right’ vendor for the ‘right’ purpose . It can be a complicated undertaking, and you must exercise diligence to ensure that you have accurately identified and documented your requirements before commencing the selection process. A forward-looking perspective should be included in your list of needs to ensure that the desired vendor/solution will be sufficient for a reasonable amount of time in the future (usually 3-5 years).
2. Evaluate Potential Information Technology Vendors
It is critical to look past the marketing hype and sales pitches in order to obtain the true facts about what they are offering. You should inquire about how they will handle your specific requirements and dive deeper to determine their level of competence. Look for client reviews online and ask for references to get an idea of how well they are doing in terms of customer satisfaction. Keep in mind that conducting a comprehensive assessment of your requirements and the services being supplied can frequently result in the identification of a solution provider who was not initially on your shortlist.
3. Continue to Evaluate the Performance of IT Vendors
Once the deal is signed, the vendor analysis work does not end. From the very beginning of the relationship, you must keep track on the performance of your information technology vendor (or vendors). Keep an eye out for things like responsiveness, shipment timelines, service quality, and order fulfilment, among other things. If you have an account representative or executive assigned to your account, make sure they are aware of what you expect from him or her.
4. Keep in Constant Communication with Others
The ability to communicate effectively is the most important part of effective IT vendor management. However, it is not always straightforward. The larger the vendor, the more likely it is that you will have to jump through hoops in order to attract someone’s attention.
Cost reduction, higher quality, more effective service, and increased customer satisfaction are all advantages of having a well-managed relationship with your information technology partner. Check with your IT vendors to ensure they are offering all you require.
The Litcom Approach
At Litcom, we assist our clients in evaluating and selecting enterprise-wide business systems, as well as solutions for specific industry verticals, best of breed software applications and the hardware and network infrastructure required to support their business. To see how we can assist you with your organization’s vendor selection process, please contact us at: [email protected] .
