Removing Key Vendor Personnel in Outsourcing Relationships

Dealing with under-performing or culturally incompatible vendor personnel is one of the most delicate matters facing vendor managers.  Certain vendor personnel are critical to operational success.  When they don’t deliver, performance deteriorates.  When friction or distrust develops, relationships go sour and communication doesn’t freely flow.  Frankly, it’s an awkward situation. The problem is that you’ve outsourced your... [Read More...]

Dispute Resolution Follow-Up

Earlier we published When Roads are Rocky: Dispute Resolution in Outsourcing Relationships. After all, not all vendor-client relationships are blissful partnerships. Stephen Guth just released a great article on the same subject. Given his legal background, it’s a very good read.  Read More →

Managing an Outsourcing Vendor’s Financial Instability

One of the principle concerns of any vendor manager is monitoring your outsourcing vendor’s financial instability.  Witness the recent failure of Axium, Hollywood’s payroll vendor and owner of Ensemble Chimes Global, previously one of the leading managed services providers of contract labor.  When Axium filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Hollywood clients and a wide variety of their vendor management system clients (which included Fortune #3... [Read More...]

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.  Read More →