13
Apr, 2020
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Vendor Relationships Could See Strain

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The COVID-19 outbreak has a lot of business owners looking over their supply chains and their budgets wondering how they are ever going to make things work. If yours is like most businesses, you use IT to make your business smarter, more efficient, and help your workforce be more productive. Unfortunately, with recessionary winds swirling around as a result of this terrible situation, it may become inevitable that your business will have to do more with less for some time. 

Your vendors are a big part of your supply chain, and when you have to make alterations to it to ensure that you are able to meet demand, but also operate within the parameters of your budget, it can be a difficult conversation if you are forced to cut back on, indefinitely pause, or eliminate, a product or service you use in your business’ day-to-day operations. Today, we thought we would tell you why our vendor management service can be an indispensable tool when tough decisions have to be made. 

About Vendor Management

Every industry has a certain amount of vendors they deal with; and, if they work with computers they have their IT vendors as well. At NuTech Services, we have identified the time speaking and negotiating with, and fielding calls from vendors as a major time waster for the modern decision maker.  

You may not think so, but you spend a lot of time dealing with your vendors. Besides the conversations you have when you are ordering something from them, they command your attention for additional sales calls, they send you endless emails and mailers, and they even use outreach to try and expand their own marketing efforts using you as a referral.

Our vendor management service is designed to manage your technology accounts to keep them from taking up your precious time. Moreover, our consultants typically have prior relationships with many of the companies you would have to deal with, an often fortuitous side effect of having NuTech Services handle vendor management for you. Sure, you may see a reduction in spending, but what you will definitely see is more time to focus on your business. The more time you spend focused on your business, the better your business can become. 

COVID-19 and Cost Reduction

With the COVID-19 global pandemic altering the way businesses have to function, you may find yourself having to pause or eliminate non-essential expenses while you can navigate the reduction in revenue. According to the Wall Street Journal, as of April 7th, 29% of the American Economy is shut down. Similar situations are facing business in the UK and Australia. 

If yours is a business that needs to pick-and-choose which services to retain (and which to eliminate), the phone calls to your vendors can be pretty rough. With the vendor management service, you don’t need to make those calls. All you need to do is tell NuTech Services’s consultants what services you will be pausing or eliminating and we’ll handle it. If your business has been especially hit hard by the stay-at-home orders, having a professional and trustworthy team of people representing your business will give you the peace of mind that your business is looked after.

What’s more, when this situation is over and you decide to reactivate services, our consultants will not only make the calls and handle the product and service delivery, we will also advise you how to best use your technology budget to meet your business demands in the new frontier. 

We take pride in being a company that works hard for our clients, even if that work is tough. Call us today at 810.230.9455 to set up a consultation to learn more about how we can help your business get through this situation. 

23
Aug, 2019
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Are You Bogged Down by Vendor Relationships?

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Small business owners have a lot on their minds and a ton of responsibilities that the average employee doesn’t have. Small businesses often force business owners into taking on various roles that may or may not fit their specific skill set, including CIO or CTO. Of course, the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer are responsible for technology-related decisions, but the reality of the matter is that you only want technology professionals in these roles… not just professionals who happen to be the most knowledgeable folks in your office.

We’re not trying to talk smack about organizations that are forced into this position. Small businesses have it tough, especially with the more technical aspects of infrastructure management and the finer details of computing. It takes more than a passable amount of knowledge to manage an infrastructure filled with the IT needed for your employees to complete their duties on a daily basis.

Vendors are there to sell you the products and services that your company needs to thrive, including the processes of building, delivering, and supporting these products and services. If you want to be successful in the business world, it’s your prerogative to create a solid relationship with your vendors. Unfortunately, vendor representatives can eat up a considerable amount of the time you should be spending managing your business.

One particular study suggests that IT vendors can take up over 13 percent of a CIO’s time; that’s time that your business simply can’t get back. We recommend taking action now to change the way your organization handles vendor management. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • Consolidate vendors: Often times businesses will test products by working with multiple vendors. If they are comparable, you should consider moving to one vendor rather than several, making the process of handling all of your products much easier as a whole.
  • Measure vendor performance: It can take time to measure vendor performance, but the time you spend will easily be made up when you eliminate vendors that aren’t providing adequate services.
  • Implement a vendor management service: When you have a single point of contact for all of your vendors, you’ll find that it’s easier and more effective to work with them. Outsourcing this to NuTech Services can help you save time and resources. We can handle your contracts, performance analyses, relationship management, and vendor risk to keep your technology working as intended.

Don’t let vendors hold you back from being successful–that’s not what they’re there for. To find out how you can better manage your vendors and resources, give us a call at 810.230.9455.