Executive sponsorship starts with a business vision to deliver a product or service to market. The strategic goals and expectations are set based on that vision. When a partner is involved, a part of the strategy is in the selection of that vendor/partner. The initial steps to begin a relationship are the honeymoon. Executives within the business, IT, and the partner should be leveraged to establish visibility and set high level expectations across all teams. Executive communications, metrics, trending exercises, risk and issue dashboards are common tools created by Trillium to measure the effectiveness trajectory. A higher degree of executive interest and support will ensure ongoing continuity and quality of product delivery, budget adherence, issue and risk identification and escalation, and schedule alignments.
There will be growing pains in any relationship. Starting from common ground with a partner with a clear strategic goal, well defined rules of engagement, and escalation paths will enable those pain points to be effectively managed and worked thereby minimizing any disruptions as the product/service moves towards market.

The second key factor of vendor and partner management is proper Technical Planning and Management. Costly and unnecessary gaps emerge once the contracts are signed and the technical teams are ready to engage. These gaps can be mitigated by proper management of vendors or partners by the IT departments through technical planning. In many organizations, management of vendors by IT is uncommon. However, there is value with IT owning the tactical planning activities due to the fact that the resources generally understand how to traverse the organization, including network, security, and environment alignments. By definition, technical planning and management is the set of activities to enable the engineers to complete the technical activities of a project including requirements gathering, design, development, testing and deployment. Some activities included in this group:

• Environmental connectivity of vendor/partner and IT systems for development and test
• Flow through test ID creation across all systems
• Analysis and design documentation – do the vendor and IT teams agree on one common process to signoff on interfaces and designs?
• Onboarding new hardware – what is the schedule for new hardware within the vendor and your IT department?
• Deployment planning – how does and what schedules does the vendor keep and how will it impact the IT organization?

The rewards reaped by building new relationships across organizations are the honeymoon. The tactical alignment and delivery activities require appropriate planning, negotiation and effort. Together partners that acknowledge and work together through deep tactical planning and management may yield sustaining value and help avoid costly divorces down the road.

Changes in economic conditions, the desire for efficiencies, and the need for specialized expertise are just a few reasons why companies are turning to vendors and partners to develop and enhance products for their customers.  These external organizations demonstrate outstanding skills within their niche.  How do you know that your company is working effectively with the vendor or partner?   It is increasing difficult to make sure that all of the pieces fit together so that a product can be released to the market on time and with quality.    To learn more about the Trillium Solution Group’s approach to Vendor and Partner Management, see the Management Case Study.

There are three key factors that will greatly increase the likelihood that your IT department is teaming effectively with the partner/vendor to deliver your product according to plan.   The factors are:  (1) Know your partner – Culture Management (2) Technical Planning – Tactical Management and  (3) Executive Sponsorship.   For this initial blog entry, we will examine the first.

Know your partner – Culture Management:  As defined by Barrons, “Corporate culture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions and meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called “the character of an organization”…. (Montana, P., and Charnov, B. (2008) Management (4th ed.), Barrons Educational Series, Hauppauge:NY)”  For example, is your vendor or partner’s culture heavy into processes or more fluid?  Is it more accepting of change or resistant to it?  How long has your vendor or partner operated and what growth has the vendor or partner experienced in the last 2, 5, 10 years?  All of these contribute to the overall corporate culture.

A common disconnect across vendors or partners is at the point at which the contracts are signed and the requests are handed to the delivery teams to build the product(s).   As the teams begin to build their relationships and learn how to work together effectively, one of the best ways to minimize the risk of delivery disruptions and gaps is to adapt a consistent strategy with the vendors and partners:

(1)     accept the risk of delivery alignment up front

(2)     spend the time to understand the benefits and disadvantages of your partner’s culture

(3)     consistently leverage the knowledge to build vendor/partner specific schedules, quality protocol, and delivery priorities and expectations

There will be growing pains in any relationship.  Taking the time to understand the culture of the organization and how that culture impacts the delivery characteristics is critical to building a successful short and long term relationship.

Social Media Explorer is authored by Jason Falls, Director of Social Media at Doe Anderson and ” is one of the most widely read and rated in the social media, marketing and public relations category and can be found in the top 20 blogs on the Advertising Age Power 150 list.”

Mr. Fippinger has been a recognized technology leader in the Chicago area for over twenty years with companies such as Microsoft, General Electric, AT&T and Cap Gemini.  He brings a unique set of experiences, understanding and talent acquisition expertise, from the perspective of both a hiring manager and recruiting professional.   In addition to his work in technology, Brian is also a published playwright and author.

In a related move, Brad Vollmert, a Trillium executive, has been named Director of Development for Trillium.  Brad will be primarily focused on working with the needs of Trillium’s association clients and was recently named Chair of the Supplier Partner Special Interest Group for the Association Forum of Chicagoland.   In the announcement, Trillium CEO Adelstein noted, “Brad has been instrumental in our successful work with association clients and will continue to help associations meet their challenges for growth and development.”

Prior to joining Trillium, Mr. Vollmert held leadership positions with companies such as MRI, Herman Draack, and Nims Associates.  Brad received his Bachelor of Science in Marketing/Sales from Northern Illinois University (NIU) where is a regular guest lecturer.   He is an active member of Project Management Institute (PMI), Technical Leader Association (TLA), and International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).   Motivated by his nephew with special needs, Brad is committed to supporting the Special Olympics at the regional and state levels of competition.

About Trillium Solutions Group

Trillium Solutions Group is a professional services firm headquartered in Chicago which provides business and technology solutions to associations, financial services firms, media and telecommunications companies, and healthcare organizations. For more information, visit www.trilliumsg.com.

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