The term vendor management is used to describe the activities in researching and sourcing vendor services. This may but not limited to, quotes with pricing, turnaround times, capabilities, and quality of work, negotiating contracts, managing relationships, assigning jobs, evaluating performance, and ensuring payments are made. It requires a lot of skills, resources, and time.
Though many business owners believe that vendor management is simply about finding the supplier with the cheapest price for a product or service, it’s about more than that. It’s about streamlining the process for heightened efficiencies and managing vendor relationships to ensure that the agreements made are mutually beneficial for both parties.