Vendor Management Archives

An Ounce of Prevention

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Burlington Resources, Inc., which is involved in the exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons, ranks first among U.S. independent oil and gas companies, in terms of proved U.S. reserves. It’s a company with the diverse global opportunities and financial strength of a major oil company, but it is also blessed with the entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility and responsiveness of an independent operator. If there was anything that might impede its ability to grow and remain competitive in its industry, Burlington would take steps to rectify that situation.

Ten Key Questions for Developing Effective Service Level Agreements

Brad L. Peterson, Partner, Mayer Brown LLP

The first and most important step in developing an effective SLA is to ask the right questions. This article will give you those questions and some background on how to choose the right answers.

Delivering the Difference

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

If you’re a patient in the emergency room, you definitely want that hospital or trauma center to have all the necessary supplies on hand — from IVs and blood plasma to bandages and syringes. But the hospital can’t keep everything on hand; it’s in the patient care business, not inventory warehousing. So the doctors and nurses rely on medical distributors to be sure they have what’s needed — or can deliver it in a couple of hours for an emergency. Many of them depend on Owens & Minor, Inc. (O&M) and, in outsourcing their supplies process to O&M, they enjoy the added advantage of reduced costs.

Putting Humpty Dumpty Together

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

In any vendor relationship, you can let the vendor manage you and direct you, but I’m not sure that you will get full satisfaction and have your full expectationss met. Companies have to understand what they are expecting and actually make decisions based on that, advises Vickie Pettee, Manager, Global Compensation and Benefits for Nokia.

How Outsourcing Helped AT&T Lower Its Energy Costs

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

With supply shortages creating a surge in natural gas prices and deregulation jacking up electricity costs, big power users found their energy costs soaring this year. The bills did go up at AT&T, but not by the magnitude of other corporate users.

Outsourcing a Process Co-Generates Savings

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

It all started with deregulation. Outsourcing the entire process fuels savings.

Supplier Supplies Capital, Engineers to Save Energy and Money

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Farmland Industries, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest co-op agribusiness cooperative in the U.S. In addition to the brand Farmland Foods, the company makes nitrogen- and phosphate-based fertilizers. Because the company uses a tremendous amount of natural gas, it has its own risk management operation. Its energy traders evaluate the price situation, working with various commodity traders, and then take futures positions in the natural gas commodity market.

Coping with Increased Development Cycles

Jerri L. Ledford, Business Writer

In the world of packaged software, upgrades usually happen about once a year, sometimes less, and those upgrades are usually pretty extensive. But in the world of an application service provider (ASP), one of the benefits of offering a centrally located application is the ability to upgrade more frequently. And because upgrades can be performed without disturbing a user’s systems, they can be done on a more direct, incremental basis.

No Room for So-So Performance

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Neither rain nor snow… You know the adage about the reliability of the U.S. postal system. Today we might transfer that goal concept: Neither viruses, nor bandwidth nor disk space will stop email! — at least not for organizations that depend on it as their primary communication vehicle.

Barking Up The Right Tree

Outsourcing Center, Bruce McCracken, Business Writer

National retailers face a challenge when they enter the professional services sector. In the area of medicine, many customers view multiple location clinics with apprehension. They conjure up images of inexperienced, overworked and underpaid interns dispensing medical solutions on an assembly line.

Research & Insight