Outsourcing Governance and “Who Owns Supplier Performance Management?”
What the $^^@#$ is supplier performance management? Procurement? Operations? That’s exactly the discussion Tim Cummins relates in his latest discussion on relationships and vendors. Evidently, at the close of International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM), the final executive roundtable debated this issue. As Tim says, they “questioned whether it is a role that Procurement groups are equipped to perform.”...
Offshore Outsourcing Vendor Governance Organizations
Does Your Offshore Outsourcing Governance Organization Design Support Your Organizational Objectives? So, I’ve definitely been stirring the pot over the last few weeks. I’ve exposed the errors in the much celebrated Black Book of Outsourcing, shown that the business of outsourcing certification is big business, and explained why vendor management organizations are a bad idea. This much skepticism could be a bit karmically unhealthy,...
Vendor Management Organizations Are a Bad Design
Does Your Vendor Management Organization's Design Serve the Enterprise? For some, vendor management organizations are a silver bullet that solve all problems. For others, vendor management organizations are the source of internal strife. Bottom line, for many organizations, they are a terrible solution. They hoard decision-making ability, distance ownership of execution and delivery from stakeholders, and focus on narrow contractual goals...
The Business of Outsourcing Certifications
Outsourcing Education is a Big Business It is highly likely that you’ve sought professional development to improve your vendor management and outsourcing management skills. There are very, very few resources available to vendor management and outsourcing professionals. As a result, you’ve probably encountered a few companies out there that specialize in training for vendor management professions. Have you noticed the pricing? Developing...
Outsourcing DIY: Less Expensive, Less Scary, More Effective
Manage Your Own Outsourcing Project Stephanie Overby’s CIO/Computerworld article is certainly thought-provoking. Essentially, Overby eschews spendy consultants for analysts and independent consultants, pumps up the smart employees already working for a company, recommends companies take advantage of less expensive templates available online, and finally suggests companies start with smaller projects where vendors get the opportunity to prove...
Desperate Measures Include Outsourcing?
Do Budgets Cause You to Outsource for the Wrong Reasons? The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article this morning in which Infosys’ COO says, ”Past patterns suggest that when budgets are under pressure, clients do all kinds of things to get more with less, like outsourcing and offshoring.” Ah, Shibu, we love your honesty and we are certain you are right. Sadly, “budgets” do more to drive outsourcing than they...
Another Tale from “When You Don’t Have Vendor Management Governance”
As related to us by a reader. Picture this: Your company has outsourced customer service for some products, but not all products. You have a single vendor with over 1,000 seats dedicated to your operation. These seats are located in several centers located in the USA (for reasons not important to this story). Your vendor management team is made-up of a single person. This person coordinates five different programs, handles contractual issues,...
Good Vendor Managers: A Scarce Commodity
Earlier this week we posted an article describing vendor management job descriptions. Yesterday day, Tim Minaham’s article on the Supply Management Talent Crunch led us to reflect on the “talent crunch” also facing vendor management. Let’s face it – good vendor managers are hard to find. Why? The positions require deep operations experience. The positions require great relationship-building and alignment-building...
Vendor Management Job Descriptions
Job descriptions are difficult enough to write when roles are clearly defined. The ambiguity of vendor management organizations and the fuzzy lines that separate them from procurement, finance, project management, business analysis, and operations organizations make vendor management job descriptions many times more difficult to write. The importance of attracting and selecting the right talent to manage major outsourcing or service vendors is...
Outsourcing Vendor Management Organizations
There are as many different organizational designs as there are flavors of ice cream. We couldn’t dream on commenting on every imaginable formation of vendor management organizations, but today we’ll attempt to describe the major types.Before we get started, let’s ground ourselves in some common definitions: Vendors – The companies who perform outsourcing services The Business – The internal organization which ultimately...
