Промышленный лизинг Промышленный лизинг  Методички 

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are available to provide training and expertise on purchasing and vendor management. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has this to say about training, certification, and continuing education for purchasing and vendor

managers:

Regardless of industry, continuing education is essential for advancement. Many purchasers participate in seminars offered by professional societies and take college courses in supply management. Professional certification is becoming increasingly important, especially for those just entering the occupation.

In private industry, recognized marks of experience and professional competence are the Accredited Purchasing Practitioner (APP) and Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) designations, conferred by the Institute for Supply Management, and the Certified Purchasing Professional (CPP) and Certified Professional Purchasing Manager (CPPM) designations, conferred by the American Purchasing Society. In Federal, State, and local government, the indications of professional competence are Certified Professional Public Buyer (CPPB) and Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO), conferred by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing. Most of these certifications are awarded only after work-related experience and education requirements are met, and written or oral exams are successfully completed.2

The National Association of Purchasing Management (now known as the Institute for Supply-chain Management; NAPM/ISM) has information on certifications available. The APP certification requires passing two exams as well as two years of experience (or one year of experience and an associates degree). The CPM certification requires four exams and five years of experience (or three years and a four-year degree from an accredited institution). The details on certifications available can be found at the NAPM/ISM and American Purchasing Society web sites. A full list of related resources is found at the end of this chapter.

Taking Control of Vendor Management

There is a well-defined process for taking control of vendor management. This process is appropriate for companies with a track record of failed vendor relationships, a variety of unruly vendors managed by disparate groups or individuals across the firm, or simply a new vendor management process. Most professional services firm managers or partners at some point inherit a variety of disparate vendor relationships in various stages of health and efficacy. Without gaining control of these relationships, service and spending problems can quickly arise from malicious vendors in poor partnerships who are looking to take advantage of the chaos or changes at customer organizations or from benign vendors who are simply paying attention to the customers that work the hardest to manage the relationship. Inattentive vendors



can wreak havoc on a firm relying on their services; a period of business change or ongoing weak management of the function can cause vendor and client agendas to diverge, and the relationships deserve special attention and tight performance management during these times. Exhibit 16.2 depicts the vendor audit /cleanup process.

The first task is to assign a vendor manager, or vendor management committee, as described in the previous section. Once this has been completed, the second task is to identify all current vendor relationships. These may exist in various departments, business units, functional units, and geographies. For every vendor relationship identified, all related legal, financial, and operational documents should be collected in a single repository. The vendor manager should review each contract and make particular notes about service level commitments, prices, maintenance agreements, evaluation/reporting procedures, and start and end dates of the agreement.

It is often difficult to locate the contracts for all service vendors in a professional services firm. The contracts may have been signed by a manager who has since departed and the original documentation lost, particularly for long-standing arrangements. A contract may be filed in the purchasing department, legal department, or human resources department; in larger organizations, the purchasing manager should keep a copy of the contract, as well as the manager of the functional area directly involved with the vendor (e.g., IT department, human resources department). Failing the location of an internal copy, the vendor manager can request a contract copy from the vendor. As a last resort, the vendor manager and vendor can renegotiate a contract to govern the ongoing relationship without necessarily changing the

Collect

Establish

Assign

Identify

Identify

inventory,

Meet

ongoing

administrative

[>

review and

with

vendor

responsibility

vendors

store all contracts

vendors

management process

Serve as vendor

Produce vendor

Audit

Goals

Procurement

management

inventory

- Contracts

Objectives

process

function

Best approach

- Terms

Alignment

Payment terms

Individual or

is working

- SLAs

Performance

Revised contract

group, depending

with accounts

Discard outdated

expectations and

on firm size

payable area

vendor contracts

SLAs

May include

coordination

with functional

department heads

in larger firms

Exhibit 16.2 Vendor Audit/Clean-Up Process



original terms. Often, long-standing contracts will have expired without renewal, while the firm continues to use the service or product. These situations create an ideal opportunity for the vendor manager to renegotiate the terms of the agreement.

As a next step, the vendor manager should meet individually with each vendor (if possible depending on the number of vendors; otherwise, select a vendor audit team to assist) to gain a deeper understanding about the vendor, its organization, products and services, history of the vendor-client relationship, contractual obligations, recent events, and to resolve any outstanding issues. This vendor checkup provides a clear view on which vendors are true partners with the firm and which vendors simply have arms length relationships for specified products or services.

Finally, the vendor manager should rapidly implement vendor performance management processes to manage the vendor relationships based on the self-reporting and audit cycles described in this chapter. This rapidly drives out underperforming vendors and ensures that fees paid to vendors are providing the company the maximum possible return.

Beginning New Vendor Relationships

Getting off to a positive start with new vendors is critical to the success of projects and to the overall productivity of the firm. The vendor manager should develop an on-boarding checklist and one-page information document for new vendors. This document includes information about invoicing, addresses, key personnel, and so on that will ensure that the vendor and organization are ready to work together smoothly. One process we have seen work well is a readiness check performed by the vendor manager one week before the vendor comes onsite. This checklist, which is signed off by all involved internal parties, ensures that the internal team is freed and ready to begin work with the vendor on the agreed-to start date, the dependent products and staff are ready to go, the work space is ready, the contract is signed and filed, and the vendor has reconfirmed the start date. If any of the items are not checked, the date is postponed. A process such as this ensures that no vendor shows up before the company is ready. This process saves critical downtime for both internal teams and vendor teams. It helps to keep vendor costs down-in the spirit of the partnership and, ideally, benefiting the company in the long term.

Vendor Contracts

A solid legal agreement should always form the foundation of any vendor relationship. While contract negotiations can be painful, contracts often out-



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