Note

Storage is a big ticket item that often only gets purchased every three to five years. Get best practice buyer's advise that leverages the purchasing experience of your IT peers.

Note

NetApp is not a low-cost solution, but the value comes from reliability and good support. Negotiate on price, but don't overlook the minimum levels of training, professional services, and support needed to ensure success.

Video

Organizations must continue efforts to reduce the high proportion of their IT budget spent (typically 70%) on continuing operations, to provide room for new initiatives that management expects IT to deploy.

Note

Organizations are increasingly dependent on external vendors and suppliers to enable the effective delivery of IT services. Manage the vendor portfolio to improve the relationship between your organization and its IT vendors, maximize their...

Video

Improve IT excellence by improving the performance of your vendors.

Tool

Once you decide on vendor performance metrics, you will need a tool to track ongoing vendor performance. Info-Tech's dashboard tool tracks metrics for up to 20 vendors for small and mid-sized organizations. It presents results both at a...

Tool

IT must collect and act on vendor feedback to manage and ensure high vendor performance. Conduct regular vendor satisfaction surveys to measure the IT department's management performance and to address areas where improvement is needed.

Tool

To ensure high vendor performance, IT departments must practice vendor management by recording and acting on vendor issues. Track issues to resolution and understand where improvement is needed.

Solution Set

Organizations are dependent on vendors yet spend little effort managing their performance, resulting in less than optimal results.

Job Description

The role of the Vendor Portfolio Manager is pivotal in the IT department's interactions with suppliers of services, hardware, and software. The portfolio manager provides product and service purchasing guidance for the entire IT department.

Job Description

The role of the Purchasing/Procurement Manager is to plan, execute, and finalize purchasing and procurement strategies for technology spend across the organization.

Job Description

The role of the Contract Manager is to support, manage, and administer contracts for technology spending on services and products across the organization.

Template/Policy

If the organization does not have a formal purchasing policy, use the OptimizeIT Purchasing Policy Template to document the rules or guidelines for IT purchases when these purchases are sometimes complex and unfamiliar.

Approaching the selection process for a Business Intelligence (BI) solution without clear budget guidelines is like handing over a blank check to a used car salesman. Organizations could end up with a Cadillac when a Chevy will work perfectly...

The configuration of a Business Intelligence (BI) platform is no easy task. While most BI applications claim to be compatible with any environment, they are not equally adaptable. Avoid configuration problems and the associated costs by...

Cutting through the vendor-speak to find a Business Intelligence (BI) solution that fits the business needs and technology environment of the organization is not easy. Include enterprise business requirements as part of the selection strategy to...

Until fairly recently, I wasn't the least bit inclined to own anything from Apple. I just didn't see the point. I had been a Microsoft user going back to my first 286 PC running DOS, and with the exception of playing with Linux on and off over...

All organizations buy products and services from a variety of vendors. Unfortunately, by failing to consolidate purchases, many are overpaying the vendors and overspending on vendor management. In addition, they may be receiving a lower quality...

(By Info-Tech Analyst Andy Woyzbun- Printed with permission from Processor magazine www.processor.com) Times are tough. Business is down. Some organizations hunker down, limiting their responses to reducing expenses and stopping projects and...

When the IT department and the enterprise's Purchasing department collide, the resulting purchase decisions may yield a pleasant surprise. Instead of bickering, learn to take advantage of purchasing professional's expertise.

Desktop and notebook computers are one of the largest budget categories for all IT departments. Whether an enterprise owns or leases its PCs, there are significant opportunities for cutting costs and streamlining strained budgets. These...

Today's IT purchasers are relying heavily on peers and colleagues in their vendor selection processes. Legitimize informal procurement research and create accountability by tracking peer recommendation and diversifying research sources.

A vendor management office (VMO) can significantly reduce expenses by planning and optimizing IT's purchases of products and services. Moreover, certain vendors are prime cost reduction candidates. In this research note, learn how the VMO can...

When Purchasing and IT collide, the resulting buying decisions may yield a pleasant surprise. Instead of bickering with purchasing and supply chain leaders learn to take advantage their procurement expertise.

Recent Info-Tech research found that continuous vendor management can significantly reduce expenses by timing, planning, and optimizing IT's purchases of products and services. In this first note of three, learn about the common characteristics...

Cost-cutting enterprises can find savings by improving tactical and strategic purchasing practices in the IT department.

The evaluation of competitive proposals takes time and effort. Use this process wisely. Understand when it is important to get competitive bids, when not to, and what information to seek.

Premium Resource

This comprehensive desktop reference book and CD-ROM will provide you with best-practices advice and tools for managing teams, departments, and organizational relationships. Best practices are explained in the specific context of the IT workplace.