Supplier Management

Introduction to supplier management

• Levels of supplier relationship (strategic, business and operational)
• Lifecycle of a supplier relationship
• Supplier relationship management introduced
• Managing risk in supplier management
• Stakeholder identification

Defining business requirements

• The importance of requirements
• Types of requirements - business, system and performance
• Qualities of 'good' requirements
• The 'requirements document'
• Cataloguing requirements - business, system and performance
• Prioritising requirements

Sourcing and selecting suppliers

• The sourcing process
• Researching possible suppliers
• Request for Information / Pre-Qualification Questionnaire
• Special rules for public sector procurements
• Assessing and filtering responses
• Request for Proposal / Invitation to Tender
• Detailed response assessment
• Non-disclosure agreements

Engaging with the supplier

• Refining the requirements
• The Service Level Agreement - purpose and structure
• Structure of an SLA and steps in establishing the SLA
• Refining and agreeing key performance indicators and deliverables

The contract

• Contract types and duration
• Contract terms and conditions
• Contract placement and termination
• Negotiation, arbitration and litigation
• Variations to the contract
• Acceptance
• Copyright, patents and other intellectual property rights
• Escrow agreements
• Limitations of liability

Establishing the working relationship

• The implications of culture on performance / relationships
• Assessing organisations
• Using emotional intelligence in customer / supplier relationships

Influencing and leading suppliers

• Stages in the supplier relationship
• Styles of leading and managing

Organising and managing supplier reviews

• Introduction - the purpose of supplier reviews
• Template for a review meeting
• Presenting the results - the project dashboard
• Using review for proactive risk analysis and management

Relationship and segmentation analysis

• What is supplier segmentation?
• Risk / Significance / Value model - how customer sees supplier
• Strength / Attractiveness model - how supplier sees customer
• Correlating the two perspectives
• Optimising the relationship

Negotiating with suppliers

• Negotiation defined
• Approaches to negotiation
• Negotiation planning checklist
• Behaviours in reaching agreement

Managing changes to scope and requirements

• The inevitability of changes
• Map for change requirement discussion

Preventing supplier complacency

• Changing and evolving supplier relationships
• Assessing supplier attitudes and behaviour
• Stages of relationship breakdown

Handling disputes and conflict

• An approach to managing conflict
• Escalation and dispute resolution

Closure and exit

• Potential closure situations - project closure, end of long term contract, premature termination
• Risk assessment for the exit stage

Learning lessons from a supplier relationship

• Reviewing a project and a longer-term contract
• Staging an effective review