What is Vendor Management?
Vendor Management is a process to extract value out of your suppliers in the long-term. This involves striking a balance of cost control, risk reduction whilst ensuring good quality services are consistently delivered.
Our Solution to Vendor Management in Fleet
At EVP Solutions, our experts combine deep domain expertise with extensive fleet management skills to provide a best-in-class vendor management service. Years of experience and understanding has enabled us to structure contracts to the benefit of our clients, as well as understanding what vendors will tolerate and what they can deliver.
We consolidate management information into one dashboard which gives a central viewpoint of overall fleet activity. This system also allows us to make accurate comparisons across our customer base and informed evidence-based decisions. Take a look at our most recent case studies or get in touch with a member of our team for more information.
The Benefits of Vendor Management
Contract Compliance
Often contracts are executed then put in a bottom drawer. Fleet vendors should be held accountable for the services they are being paid for.
Increase Cost Control
Prices can often creep up over time if they are not effectively reviewed and controlled. This is especially so in the fleet leases where several pricing elements can be adjusted by the fleet management company.
Vendor Engagement
The vendor management process creates an open and transparent dialogue encouraging innovation and commitment from both parties. The engagement process can help shape the service delivery to the benefit of the customer. In the longer term the customer can understand in more detail what they really need from a supplier which will help when contracts are due for renewal.
Risk Reduction
Reduces the risk of non-delivery of services through holding the vendor to account on their performance. Issues get addressed in a timely manner and are not ignored by the supplier or the customer.
Find out more about the benefits of vendor management by getting in touch with a member of the team on 0161 973 8579, or email us at hello@evpsolutions.co.uk.
Vendor Management Challenges
Skills and Expertise
Fleet strategy and management can be a complex area to understand and specialist skills are required to manage the contract correctly. Often the vendor will pull the wool over your eyes unless you know the fleet category well.
Resource
Managing vendors can be a time-consuming activity especially where there isn’t a dedicated team in place. Vendor management may be part of a role where there are other activities which could be viewed as a priority.
Systems and Processes
For many organisations, information can be spread throughout the business and not held in a central location.
The Process
Set the Strategy
Establish SMART objectives with a broad group of stakeholders who have an interest in the fleet. This way all of the organisation can be assured they have had input into the process and their needs will be addressed. It also makes sure that the correct metrics will be measured rather than what the supplier would like to report.
Assign Roles and Responsibilities
This should include Vendor and customer side so everyone involved in the process knows what they are signing up to. Representation should be sought across regions or divisions to make sure all the needs of the business are covered. Roles should be tiered according to a RACI matrix so stakeholders are only engaged where they need to be.
Consolidate Information
Gather relevant information from across the supply chain both internally and from the vendor. Information will come from a variety of sources and may involve data in different formats and across different time zones. In these instances, data should be normalised and linked together where it is appropriate and will add value to any analysis you are likely to conduct.
Performance Criteria
Criteria may vary according to service being provided and should be linked to the overall strategy. Areas such as driver satisfaction will form part of this as well as business related commercial indicators such as cost, quality and delivery. Risks should be jointly assessed over the contractual term and joint plans established to address issues at different thresholds.
Agree and Implement
At the end of the agreement, both parties will need to formalise the vendor management process and commit to managing the process together. The process should always strike the balance using empirical data and human qualitative input.
Get in touch with one of our experts to find out more about the vendor management process.