Welcome to part 1 of the series on the key capabilities needed to be an effective Supplier Relationship Manager. Knowing what capabilities are required is what will help you become superior when managing suppliers and vendors, transparently and collaboratively.

Preface

The purpose of having a Supplier Relationship Manager in place is to ensure that your IT and Procurement Department has the ability to gain oversight and effective management of all your key supplier and vendor relationships. This includes; having the ability to implement rigorous controls to manage operational risk, obtain the best value for money from strongly negotiated contracts, and improve delivery efficiencies from your vendors through transparent and collaborative working.

An effective supplier relationship manager will require being able to manage a portfolio of IT suppliers and contracts that they own dependant on your business’s strategic aims.

There is always going to be a strong element of service lifecycle management within the role if you were to base your management around an efficient software solution. Supplier relationship managers would need to have an appreciation and working knowledge of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (- a guide containing best practices in set modules on the IT Infrastructure needed to easily sustain and develop an effective set of technological processes.) Across the series is the 5 key areas which are key in establishing the maximum value and ability to sustain a role as a Supplier Relationship Manager, both in running a team of SRM members and on being an individual owning a set of suppliers or vendors

1. Supplier Management

Across the SRM function, it is important to have the ability to manage a team in order to provide a customer focused supplier relationship management service whilst meeting the appropriate standards of operational delivery. For effective operational delivery, there must be timely contract renewals which include effective stakeholder management in order to build assurance around your vendors, whilst ensuring strong bonds between contract negotiations across the SRM lifecycle.

In addition, an effective manager will need to be able to partake in robust risk mitigation management for the purpose of continually strengthening relations with their vendors at additional points of value. Regular awareness seminars and ‘sharing skills’ sessions will help to establish this across the whole team and hopefully build up a range of added value across your business.

Rigorous budget controls, set by supplier relationship management, helps to sustain an increase in value from a proposition built to enhance the relations with vendors, across the contracts in place. In order to increase value from this budget control, it is important to review vendors’ goals and strategic direction, ensuring they remain aligned to the current and future needs of your business units.

Delivering effective, forward-thinking services is key in establishing the relationship with your vendors, and the part it has to play across your long-term strategic goals. An engagement plan should be maintained by the SRM manager which details the management approach for monitoring, reviewing and future-proofing the services your vendors deliver. Undertaking and running supplier assurance activities will also help to assure your suppliers have adequate security controls in place to manage data, via review meetings and follow-ups if there are areas for improvement.

A successful supplier relationship manager will need to be able to monitor and expedite key supplier management tasks via system and service owners, which will allow efficiency and the ability to review and improve upon current vendor relationships.

Finally, the SRM function must ensure there are effective onboarding and exit strategies for each supplier used and taken control of by each supplier relationship manager in your team. To avoid the use of an exit strategy, the team leader should look to ensure strong relationships are built from monitoring how closely others in the team work with other government departments, services or supplier-oriented programmes.

This is the first of 5 blogs focused on the necessary skills of an effective supplier relationship manager. Be sure to look out for part 2, looking at the skills focused around Contract Management.