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Chapter 5 ■ Service Design
Unlike strategic suppliers, the management of tactical suppliers is handled by
the middle layer of the service provider management organization. The supplier
management process supports performance reviews, regular meetings, and
implementation of performance improvement measures.
5.7.4.1.3 Operational Suppliers
The third tier of suppliers is important operationally but not otherwise. These
suppliers do the basic things that run certain smaller sections of the IT service provider
organization.
An example could be provision of telephone lines for the service provider
organization to make local and international calls. There could be multiple operational
service providers providing the same type of services, one acting as the backup to the
other or working in parallel.
Operational suppliers are managed directly by the service provider’s operational
teams. The suppliers’ management process helps in coordinating and tracking their
performance.
5.7.4.1.4 Commodity Suppliers
Commodity suppliers, as the name suggests, provide commodities that more often than
not do not impact the delivery of IT services to the customer. The products they deliver
can be sourced through a different commodity supplier, which entails the dependence on
individual commodity suppliers.
An example of a commodity supplier would be a company that delivers products
such as coffee beans for the vending machine, ink cartridges for the printers, and other
items to this effect.
5.7.4.2 Objectives of Supplier Management
I have discussed enough suppliers and how they are required to be aligned to the
customer’s requirements rather than their own interests, which is one of the main
objectives of a supplier. Think about it, if the customer’s requirement for a resolution
is five business hours and the service provider agrees and signs it off on the SLA, the
supplier who is delivering a part of the service must adhere to the same set of SLAs.
He cannot agree to a different timeline (more is not okay, less is good). All the supplier
contracts and supplier-related information are stored in a database called the supplier
and contract management information system (SCMIS).
Here are the top goals or objectives of the supplier management process:
1. Suppliers form a part of the business, so it is imperative that
the primary objective of the process is to ensure that the
service provider obtains value for the money
2. Ensure through service-level management that the SLAs with
suppliers are aligned with the customer’s SLAs
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