You're tasked with creating a vendor management program. What's the first step to building success?

The very first thing you need to do when getting started on any initiative is one that I've seen professionals of all ages completely overlook which is to check your ego at the door! Making a buying decision on behalf of an organization can have an impact of millions and sometimes billions of dollars can sometimes mess with your head if you are not careful. Running a supplier initiative is an opportunity to make an impact on the organization for years to come and while you have cost savings targets, your true job is in the end to get products or services out the door to customers. Not to extort golf trips and expensive dinners from desperate salesmen. Really take stock in how your suppliers can influence your company's core mission.

Start by understanding the challenges and pain points of your most prolific contingent workforce users and develop the program to meet the needs of those teams. This ensures the program is tailored to groups most reliant on your staffing community for talent and will drive better program adoption. Schedule internal sessions with these key stakeholders to drive a thorough needs analysis. While best-in-class programs will deliver a positive experience for users throughout an organization, “superusers” are typically the most vocal and can ultimately have an impact on the success or failure of your overall program.

Firstly you must know your clients requirements. How your organization is delivering your clients. On the basis of those needs and your organization potential, than only you need to move out in market to find right vendor or supplier. while raising any inquiry to vendor you must be sure of budget & timeframe i.e within what cost & how much would be the delivery period of that product or service. Other things that matters is transportation & other overhead cost. Thus all to do is deal with your costing.

Vendor management program must be initiated with clearly defined goals and scope that must be aligned as per the customer requirement. This program must focus upon strengthening the buyer-supplier relationship by not just highlighting the pain areas and the loopholes in the existing processes but also finding solutions with engagement of both the parties via effective communication of strategies and priorities. This will eventually increase the productivity, improve the quality and most importantly help in the cost reduction. The ultimate goal of any organisation should be the ability to maximize their profits by utilising the current resources to the best of its potential and I believe this would fulfill the sole purpose of this program.

Define objetivos y alcance claros para maximizar el valor de los proveedores. Utiliza habilidades de negociación para establecer acuerdos ventajosos, gestiona relaciones sólidas tratándolos como parte del equipo. Evalúa proveedores en calidad, confiabilidad y costo. Optimiza costos sin comprometer calidad y gestiona riesgos diversificando proveedores y estableciendo planes de contingencia.

My team performs a stakeholder analysis that includes digging into the existing supplier relationships with internal end-users. While on our scavenger hunt to uncover all the info, we ask those end users how they could reimagine what the existing supplier relationship could look like. We learn a lot about how to approach the new relationship dynamic so that both supplier and end-user feel motivated to be team players and support the new initiative.

Understanding the goals and scope is important, but assessing yourself, or a client, goes deeper. When assessing your current state, ask questions like, "How do you currently manage your contingent workforce and vendors?", and "Do you have visibility over your entire extended workforce, including all labor categories, in real-time?" Personally, I would emphasized the importance of lifecycle program support, as companies don't always know what they are getting themselves into. Also ask, "are you looking for a solution that integrates with existing HR and procurement systems?" Because, if you're reassessing your current state, something somewhere is probably outdated.

Now that needs are known, do a market scan so you have a snapshot of the current players in the desired domain. Then develop standard criteria that will apply to each vendor. Once as part of a procurement process I wrote up a small reusable algorithm where requirements, vendor services and capabilities, one time startup costs, 5-year ongoing scalability costs, etc. could be loaded in and scored based on standard agreed criteria. This ensured fairness and kept us focused on the our key needs regardless of how many free pens were given out. We also assessed the costs and repercussions of not doing a vendor selection so we had a comparative baseline. All of this became decision-support data.

For Creating Vendor Strategy the below points needs to be considered 1. Set Goals 2. Find Suppliers 3. Define Criteria 4. Evaluate Vendors - Region Wise, Category wise, Long Term Basis, Reputed Vendor Basis, Financial Criteria Basis 5.Negotiate Contracts 6.Relationship with Vendors 7.Need to Handle Risk and Improve continuously.

When implementing a vendor program, you should take a proactive approach versus a reactive one to training. Conduct live webinars on Zoom or Microsoft Teams with your suppliers, the program management office team, and the most important end users - the managers who will be using the program. Having multiple session options (3-4 each) over the course leading up to go-live, and a few afterwards, will enable real-time interaction and help ensure company buy-in. It can also provide a deep-dive opportunity to learn more complex topics like vendor negotiation and performance evaluations. Never assume your future state is going to be perfect. Finally, conduct a strict Q&A at the end so you can create a FAQ list to direct people to afterwards.

Es fundamental realizar evaluaciones constantes a los proveedores según la criticidad de los productos o servicios que proporcionen, para ello es importante: - Parametrizar al proveedor para establecer los periodos de evaluación. - Armar métricas según los criterios marcados como relevantes por los usuarios solicitantes de aquellos productos o servicios. - Comunicar los resultados se dichas evaluaciones tanto a los mismos proveedores, como a los clientes internos. - Proponer acciones en base a estos resultados

There needs to be a quantitative matrix involving parameters like cost, quality and delivery. Cost can be determined using percentage of times vendor was L1. Quality can be determined by percentage of times vendor's material was accepted as ok. Delivery can be determined by percentage of times vendor delivered on time (delivery compliance). These can be integrated to build one composite score for each vendor and an overall vendor rating. Vendors below a certain score maybe sent automated communication highlighting areas of improvement. Vendor's above a certain score maybe peioritizing for RFQ process and awarding business.