Vivo

In case you missed Vivo’s 5 Year Anniversary party, here’s a short video to make it seem like you were there!

I speak to many people in the industry and I hear the same complaint when it comes to supplier management: too many and too little time with which to manage them all. While the ideal may be to limit the number of suppliers, that is not always a realistic option. If anything, the realities of a globalized business climate  result in an increase in suppliers. Not only do we source globally, but many of us also provide goods and services to an international marketplace. With no hope of reducing supplier numbers in sight,  the solution lies instead in focusing on the right suppliers where you can achieve the greatest value. By categorizing  your suppliers and focusing most of your attention on one group in particular– the Strategic supplier—you can manage the unmanageable.

4 Categories of Suppliers

Categorizing your suppliers into four groups is the first step in getting your arms around your supplier base and understanding where money is spent and the product, and/or service for which each supplier is paid. The four categories that are known throughout the industry are Strategic, Tactical, Emerging, and Legacy, in no particular order.

Strategic – high-dependency, high cost exposure vendors, as well as vendors that the IT organization wishes to increase business with over time

Tactical – technologies or solutions that are typically point solutions that may or may not have a long-term role within the business environment

Emerging – developing and/or new technologies which will or are substantially altering the business.  Technology developments and innovations that continue to be on the upward swing

Legacy – part of an organization’s computing heritage and continue to serve a vital role in the enterprise computing infrastructure

The Strategic Supplier

Focusing on the Strategic suppliers provides  the greatest ”bang for the buck” . This is where the company has most likely invested the most money and on whom it has the highest dependency for continued  support and growth of the business.

The issue remains  that too many times the list of strategic suppliers is the largest of all four categories, diminishing any benefit that categorizing suppliers in this manner should have offered.  It is important to define what a Strategic supplier is, as not all suppliers are or can be Strategic.  Ask yourself:

• Spend: Which are the suppliers where the company spends the most?
• Risk: Which suppliers (goods and technologies) are deeply entrenched within the company and would be extremely difficult to remove and/or replace?
• Business: Which suppliers does the company utilize for increased business

Obviously there are others triggers and indicators that can be used but these are the simplest and easiest that will help whittle the list down to a manageable size.  Using this extremely simple approach to categorizing suppliers drives extreme value.

The Value – it’s About Leveling the Playing Field

As we discussed, you’re not likely to decrease suppliers in any meaningful way, at least not for any significant period of time. The likelihood of increasing staff to retain vendor-management-staff-to-supplier ratios is unrealistic as well. But, the results that can be achieved by concentrating the bulk of your team’s efforts on managing the full lifecycle of the relationship with  the correctly grouped Strategic Suppliers are great.   Without this focus, unmanaged suppliers raise prices, miss SLAs, slip in renewals, swap out key resources, etc. Simply put, some vendors are betting on you not having time to hold them to that which was sold.

This is not something that happens over night or can be done on an ad hoc basis.  The whole idea of managing the Strategic suppliers is to try and level the playing field (between you and the supplier) so that you can drive and achieve the value  told and sold by each supplier.  If you do not manage the relationship the imbalance will remain, and you, as the buyer, will assume all risks from this unbalanced relationship.  Consistent, focused management will change how this tier of suppliers view you as a customer – from  “cash cow”  to key customer/partner.

Ultimately, from the new focus on Strategic Suppliers you can expect a renewed focus from your account team, gain better insight in the account and be on the road to achieving and retaining the value you were sold at the creation of the relationship.

California-based Vivo announces its expansion to Chicago

Pleasanton, Calif–September 13, 2011—Vivo, the premier IT consulting and staffing firm for Silicon Valley companies, today announced the official expansion to the Midwest, with the recent opening of its Chicago, Illinois office.  “This is something our clients asked us for”, answered CEO Marilyn Weinstein when asked what prompted the new office.  “We serve many of our clients virtually, but our Chicago business has really been heating up over the last few quarters.”  Weinstein also announced today that Vivo Business Development Manager, John Zink, will oversee local Chicago operations in their new downtown space located on 500 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 300 Chicago, IL 60611.

About Vivo

Vivo is the Silicon Valley-based IT consulting and staffing firm that solves complex technology challenges efficiently, effectively and with gracious simplicity.  The firm specializes in successfully aligning the business and technical needs of IT with the expectations and cost requirements of the CFO.  Regardless of a company’s market focus and unique business challenges, Vivo’s IT specialists optimize processes to accelerate business results.  Client-focused, nimble and precise—Vivo’s commitment is to constantly and consistently deliver the most responsive, highest-quality results possible.  For more information, please visit www.vivoinc.com.

Contact:
Kathy Ho
Vivo
Kathy.ho@vivoinc.com
925-271-6797

Congratulations to Vivo for being named #58 on San Francisco Business Times 2011’s 100 Top Women Owned Businesses in the Bay Area!

Look on page 126 for more info here: http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=14&refresh=B1d93S0we4J0&EID=ca3a944e-fc5d-4bad-b3d6-ee5017bbf948&skip&p=14

We were happy to help sponsor the 2^nd Annual CIO Scholarship Charity Golf Tournament  on August 26^th, 2011.   A fun event, our golfers Michael Parish, Anthony Dal Canto, and Sandra Brown enjoyed the festivities as well.

Big thanks to the CIO College Scholarship Board, for hosting such a fun event. We were pleased to learn that the event was so successful, and that between the tournament and their marathon, the charity collected and can now distribute over $100K to local colleges through their existing scholarship programs managed by the individual universities.   These monies go to under privileged kids seeking an education in technology at local colleges and universities.