When you’re running an entire enterprise, finding a single vendor to meet all your IT issues is close to impossible. That’s why most organizations rely on a network of third-party vendors and partners.

Why IT vendor Management?

IT vendor management allows companies to not only curate their solutions to ensure they’ve chosen the right systems, but also lock down the best costs and mitigate risk across the company. Yet, these are only the core functions of IT vendor management. Today, it’s not just about comparing prices. It’s about building vendor relationships that will ultimately benefit both organizations.

Vendor management is a process that allows organizations to control costs, strengthen service, and reduce risk throughout the process of outsourcing to vendors while extracting the most value from the investment. In IT, this translates to implementing technologies, processes, policies, and procedures that support the needs of the business.

Vendor management addresses four key areas:

• Contracts. Managing the intricacies of IT procurement.

• Performance. Eliminating disruptions in customer service and internal operations, while ensuring the highest level of quality.

• Relationships. Assessing the value of the entire partnership.

• Risk. Evaluating and mitigating risk of potential impact.