Vendor Manager

Roles and Responsibilities

Vendor Management:

Vendor Management is regional but is accountable for services and products delivered globally by Vendors.

The Vendor Manager's responsibility is to:

- Ensure that the vendor delivers value for money whilst minimizing risk for the services and products allocated to the Global Service Owners & Operational Leads within Technology Operations

- Ensure that the full contract life cycle is fully managed.

- Establish effective financial management that will;

- Ensure payments to Vendors are correct and timely

- Usage trends that impact costs are understood

- Effective forecasting is implemented

- Managed in line with OGC / ITIL CIPS

Other essential responsibilities include:

Pre-Contract

- Collaborate with the stakeholders and Tech Sourcing to ensure the appropriate processes are adopted to select the best vendor along with the right contract structure. Ensure OLA's and SLA underpinning contracts align with desired service

Post-Contract

Contract Management

- Ensure an operating rhythm is established with appropriate type of service provided by the vendor to ensure service / products are delivered to expectation. For some vendors this will entail ensuring service reviews and set up and attended by the correct individuals

- Be the point of escalation within Technology Operations for contractual and / or commercial disputes / Service & Support issues (this excludes day to day incident resolution / management)

- Pro-actively manage contract terminations, closure, transfer and renewals. Vendor manager should demand challenge and perform due diligence prior to closures, renewal and termination of contracts, this activity should be performed in consultation with any appropriate stakeholders such as the business

- Ensure changes to the contract are administered in line with change management processes and update all central repositories

Control and Governance

- Develop an account plan for each vendor which will drive interaction and effective demand management.

- Ensure vendor database is maintain and up-to-date

- Socialize Vendor Management's programs and processes to Sourcing, Stakeholders, and Finance,

- Create focused vendor relationship strategies for critical vendors and encourage diversity within our vendor base

- Vendor performance is monitored, reported, tracked & reviewing performance using metrics to measure success according to the contract guidelines and account plans

- Designing and implementing continuous process and quality improvements (driving efficiency and effectiveness) within the vendor management program in conjunction with GSO, Finance, and Sourcing teams

- Drive vendor behavior and deliver continuous improvement in vendor performance that fosters revenue and earnings growth and expense management, ensuring stakeholders have appropriate visibility

- When required and appropriate facilitate vendor audits of client and bench marking activities

Policy and Process

- Ensure adherence to client contracting processes and client Sourcing / Supplier management operating model

- Where appropriate ensure vendors & their teams are compliant with TR SOX, Logical Systems Access processes, Service Management (Change, Incident, Problem management ) processes

- Effective communication of a vendor management vision, strategy and business plan to all stakeholders (internal ) and vendors (external)

- Corporate advocacy of vendor management through relationship building, results delivery and effective communication to ensure vendor management is a core strategic lever for stakeholders and Sourcing teams, with measurable results

Financial Control

- Ensure processes are in place for the review and analysis of invoices which in turn will verify accuracy of charges

- Act as a checkpoint to validate charging

- Coordinates activities between Finance, Business & Vendor to ensure all invoices are raised & paid in accordance with vendor agreements

- Ensure client payment terms are enforced, where applicable

- Forecast cost for 3rd part supplier agreements together with high level understanding of spend with input from Service Owners

- Ensure appropriate stakeholders are informed of contract additions / terminations of to enable correct budget forecasting

- Perform expense and cost benefit analyses related to technology products/services associated with cost savings/reduction initiatives, benchmark products/services, market and vendors, and make recommendation based upon analyses

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Required Skills

- Advanced Vendor Management experience.

- Competency in ITIL and/or CIPS framework

- Proven experience in Sourcing

- Global perspective with ability to act regionally and locally

- Strong relationship building, communication and presentation skills

- Excellent customer service and writing skills

- Proven thought leadership in the areas of vendor management, governance and business processes

- Experience with e-procurement tools, vendor scorecards, and customer surveying

- Effective negotiation and strategic sourcing skills

- Ability to handle multiple tasks successfully

- Strong computer skills; proficiency in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

- Must be self-motivated, dynamic and able to work with minimal supervision