Vendors or Partners?
Phil Fersht, AMR’s outsourcing guru, opened an interesting can of worms today with his blog entry, Is your outsourcing vendor really your partner?
There’s a good conversation, with everyone agreeing that a good relationship is essential, but some divergence over the motives of clients and vendors (oops, guess what our opinion is?).
The thread of comments is definitely worth a read – and be sure to contribute your opinion.
Related posts:
Um, this one is simple. Vendors are NEVER partners. In order for a partnership to exist, both parties have to be working together for a common goal. In most cases, as the buyer is seeking a solution and the vendor is seeking money, the partnership fallacy is an illusion created by the vendor and supported by the buyer. This illusion is supported because the buyers don’t want to think that they’re getting screwed. So they buy-in because it feels better.
At a ground level, the teams should work as partners. However you do need a formal customer:vendor relationship at a higher level. This seperation of entities requires dedication and commitment from both parties and at a senior level in both companies.