Vendor relationship management - Areyo Dadar

There is a lot of advice out there for IT vendors regarding what they need to do to ensure happy customers. At the same time, there is a reciprocal need on the part of the customers to try to keep the relationship happy. It's easy to fall into the, "I'm a customer and they must do whatever I want" line of thinking. VRM is part of a larger picture as well. Perhaps the best name and description for that larger picture is Life Management Platforms, coined by Martin Kuppinger of Kuppinger Cole.

Here are 10 things you can do to help maintain the best relationship possible with your vendors.

1: Pay them on time

2: Learn the marketplace

3: Know their responsibilities, the SLAs, etc.

4: Don't trash talk them (especially in public)

5: Understand that they have other customers

6: Learn what they need from you

7: Separate the people from the company

8: Meet them halfway

9: Make your expectations known early

10: Remember: They're human too!

#areyodadar #humanresources #itvendorsareyodadar