Course Overview

Supplier Management

Organisations have always depended on suppliers for their operations but in the 21^st Century, and particularly with the development of outsourcing, the range and complexity of customer/supplier relationships has increased. In addition, the responsibility for managing suppliers may fall upon the business area managers but, particularly in the case of outsourced software development and IT services, this responsibility is allocated to other roles such as business analysts or project managers. This course, developed through a unique collaboration between AssistKD, Matchett and HR Team, provides a framework for understanding the issues associated with managing suppliers using a blend of soft and tangible techniques.

SFIA Mapping

This course supports skills SURE levels 4 and 5, and RLMT level 5.

Course Content

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. Establishing the working relationship
   • The implications of culture on performance / relationships
   • Assessing organisations
   • Using emotional intelligence in customer / supplier relationships
7. Influencing and leading suppliers
   • Stages in the supplier relationship
   • Styles of leading and managing
8. 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
9. 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
10. Negotiating with suppliers
    • Negotiation defined
    • Approaches to negotiation
    • Negotiation planning checklist
    • Behaviours in reaching agreement
11. Managing changes to scope and requirements
    • The inevitability of changes
    • Map for change requirement discussion
12. Preventing supplier complacency
    • Changing and evolving supplier relationships
    • Assessing supplier attitudes and behaviour
    • Stages of relationship breakdown
13. Handling disputes and conflict
    • An approach to managing conflict
    • Escalation and dispute resolution
14. Closure and exit
    • Potential closure situations – project closure, end of long term contract, premature termination
    • Risk assessment for the exit stage
15. Learning lessons from a supplier relationship
    • Reviewing a project and a longer-term contract
    • Staging an effective review