In any start-up or established businesses, suppliers and vendors play an imperative role and help in strengthening the company. It is known fact that businesses have to consider the criteria to assess and evaluate their progress. There are different standards mentioned in the two articles “Vendor Management Tips: Building Relationships” and “7 Tips for Rating and Evaluating Your Suppliers and Vendors.” The two articles have been considered in the paper to elaborate and rate the criteria used according to importance. The paper has tried to build the concept and importance of the criteria used in businesses to achieve the goals.
The startup companies and already established companies assess their relationship with vendors or suppliers based on the criteria. They evaluate the services provided by vendors and suppliers based on the different criteria as highlighted in the articles and rate the services. Services provided by vendors and suppliers have to fulfill all the criteria and satisfy the companies. Vendors and suppliers relationship with the companies is sensitive and to have profitability/ smooth operation, it is essential for companies to evaluate the performance given by the vendors and supplier. However, companies have to make sure that vendors and suppliers help them to grow the business. It is safe to say that companies have a mutually beneficial partnership with an impact on price and quality of service. In contrast, a prevalent issue that can be observed is that companies have a combative relationship with their suppliers and vendors. According to Niazi, et al.(2016), the combative relationship can be defined as a pugnacious intention towards the other party where the prominent party is ready to argue with the one whom they consider them. In the given context it can be explained in a way that companies do not provide the require importance to suppliers or vendors and dictate them with the orders (Niazi, et al., 2016).
It is a mistake on the part of enterprises that needs to be amended in any possible manner. There are few criteria mentioned in the articles and criteria are rated in order of importance. The most important step is to devise an evaluation plan where you evaluate the performance of potential vendors. The companies after shortlisting potential vendors should focus on the quality of service, not the price. Another criterion that should be considered is finding multiple best vendors. It is safe to say that keep your sleeves rolled up with potential vendors. Companies should make sure that they are respectful to the vendors since these vendors would help them to grow their business (Mindtools, 2016).
Maintain a good relationship with the vendors; do not make them like the last one on the list to get the updates. Most importantly companies should try to treat the potential partners as partners, not as vendors and make sure not to treat them indifferently. Companies always strive to make progress that is possible if they create a competitive environment by considering alternatives. Explain vendors the complete scenarios and seek for their help since they have know how of the competitive market. All these criteria have been covered in both articles, and they have justified all the criteria in evaluating the services provided by vendors. There are many other criteria included in the existing literature of how to assess the vendors and suppliers. Nevertheless, aforementioned articles have justified the criteria considered for evaluating the company’s approach towards potential vendors (Niazi, et al., 2016).
The criteria that are not listed in the article are 10 C’s that should be considered while evaluating potential suppliers that can help companies to progress considerably. 10 C’s include Competency, Capacity, Commitment, Control, Cash, Cost, Consistency, Culture, Clean, and Communication (Mindtools, 2016). Also, the criterion that companies should keep in mind is to include pricing and quality factors that should be clear to potential vendors. In addition to all, the criteria discussed, companies should have strong communication with the vendors. All the companies should consider these criteria to rate the performance of vendors. Moreover, scale method can be used to rate the criterion used in evaluating the vendors and suppliers. Scale method rates the criterion by assigning a number from 1-10 that how the vendors' services and performances have been. The method so far used is good in a way that it gives the idea to the company about what service can be expected in the future from the potential vendors. The scale method also gives the idea about which vendors to consider in the future. If one has to implement any criteria to evaluate the vendors, one should consider maintaining good relationships with potential vendors. Communication and other C’s should be considered effectively (Mindtools, 2016).
Other than scale method other methods should also be considered to evaluate the criteria use for assessing the vendors and suppliers. The scoring method is another method considered by companies to evaluate the criteria used for analyzing the vendors. Rate the criteria by giving accurate scores. For instance, rate the relationship company has with the vendor or the services provided by the supplier. All such methods can help companies to check where they are headed in the market.
References
Mindtools. (2016). 10 Cs of Supplier Evaluation. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/10-cs.htm
Niazi, M., Mahmood, S., Alshayeb, M., Riaz, M. R., Faisal, K., Cerpa, N., et al. (2016). Challenges of project management in global software development: A client-vendor analysis. Information And Software Technology, 80 (1), 1-19.
