Thursday, June 23, 2011

Vendor Management

You might be in any business but your company's overall performance in the market place is strengthened by strong relationship with your vendors. Companies spend lot of time and money in nurturing vendor's who are not directly impacting the bottom line of the organization. As we challenge our expertise in all fields by setting and raising standards, it is also same in case of Vendor Relationship Management. Great companies have best practices which are set of standard which they follow to achieve or exceed. Vendor relationship management also have standard practices which is followed for a great relationship. Ignoring these best practices for managing vendor may result in dysfunctional relationship and hence negatively impacting company's business.


So what is the best practice for vendor management?

What are the important steps for defining best practice?

My experience ( and i am sure most of yours too!) tells me that whatever is the standards or best practices followed, a healthy relationship with vendor yields a reduced cost, quality delivery/products, and high customer satisfaction only if we follow/control/watch some of the key milestones/points



  • Remain Flexible

  • Monitor Performance

  • Communicate Constantly


Although selecting a vendor and defining the contract may be very critical, but we can discard the importance of managing relationship with vendor. Information Technology which is used as a "Tool" for business opportunities, can be used to deliver a needs of process for a successful and healthy Vendor Relationships. Companies can deliver results going beyond the expectations if they have process frameworks and management tools. If you have process framework ( I call it Information Technology Process Framework -ITPF) and strong Management tool (Vendor Management Solution - VMO), the delivery of high expectations of company and challenges of managing a vendor become a cakewalk.



Asheesh Vashisht

Prinicipal Consultant

http://www.systems-plus.com/



































Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Basic Information often forgot about Internet marketing

Information Technology is a "Tool" and not "Solution" for your need.

I always start with this quote whenever it comes to technology. You would have heard one or more of the following:

1. I had installed CRM software , still not able to manage our relationship with customer.
2. I have most powerful ERP implemented in our organization, yet we take a week to close.
3. I have one of the best websites and done SEO , but we do not get business through internet.

The bottomline here is that these people have thought the software solutions as the solution and not the tool to aid/help them achieve the desired goal. Same goes with Internet Marketing. I am presenting few one line tips for you to consider when you do think of Marketing through internet.

1. Internet Marketing is all about visibility, presentability, availability, and accessbility. You should be visible in this vast Galaxy of Internet users. Once visible, you should be presentable(e.g. your site maybe visible but the presentability is so bad that user do not want to read about it). If you are present , you should have information available to the user/customer/reader. Last but not the least, if you have passed all the test, you should be contactable for any feedback/query/Comment.
2. SEO is not only being ranked high. It is about ranked high with correct keywords which matches your delivery and customer expectations.
3. SEO/SMM/ORM are all tools which you use to build "Trust" with your customer. Imagine you have very good friend in software solution, but you do not trust him that he can do internet marketing, will you go to him? Build "Trust" with your audience. People are more likely to trust a friend's recommendation than to trust an ad.
4. Social Media helps us communicate faster. It is "word of mouth" on steroids.
5. To use Social Media.




  • Start on a phased approach


  • Define your objectives clearly


  • Select Target market


  • Assess your knowhow and capabilities


  • Execute the strategy


  • Measure the performance.


And most important Experiment!!!!!