Effective management of the partners, suppliers and preferred-contractors selected to support a programme delivery is core to ensuring a programme delivers to the agreed time, cost and quality criteria and business benefits. Management should not be 'outsourced' to the IS or other functions within a business but should be a defined activity within the programme, ensuring that suppliers adopt a 'partnering' approach, viewing delivery as a joint responsibility and addressing issues from a delivery or service perspective and not a contractual one.
LOC believes that effective supplier management occurs when a trusted 'client-side' partner assumes overall responsibility for the management of an agreed group of suppliers and adopts a professional approach to management by providing structured feedback and clear, unambiguous criteria which define the levels of performance and commitment required. By recognising that each project, programme or change initiative is unique and that the criteria for effective management need to be evolved depending on the nature of the assignment as well the constraints and commitments of the business, it becomes evident that strong supplier management is fundamental to any effective programme.
This is a core competence of LOC given our unique client-side positioning and focus on programme and project delivery. We have both the capability and experience to optimise the quality and associated cost of suppliers' involvement and to ensure that this engagement is in the client's best interest. As well defined part of our capability set we can conduct an independent review of an existing supplier arrangement to ensure that the approach is configured to maximise the supplier's input, and will propose practical changes to existing arrangements including selecting an alternate supplier.
We believe that effective supplier management requires:- Strong and pragmatic contractual capability
- Practical knowledge of programme and project delivery
- Negotiation acumen
- A tried and tested approach, utilising common evaluation criteria and processes
- Knowledge of the consultancy market, including the competencies of a range of supplier organisations