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Strategic Plan: The SVM Practice Playbook
As more and more companies rely on external suppliers to facilitate core business operations, the need for a clearly defined sourcing strategy is more important than ever. Successful companies have...

Very few IT organizations have complete control over the corporatewide IT investments that are spent with external services providers. In Forrester's Forrsights Budget And Priorities Tracker Survey,...
Refining The Sourcing Life Cycle To Accommodate Changes In The Technology Landscape
New technologies, new service delivery models, and new competitive challenges are forcing companies to reconsider the way they source technologies for the business. While in the past cost was the...


The Forrester SVMO Maturity Model is designed to provide SVM professionals with a brief self-assessment tool that enables SVM organizations to evaluate their program maturity, articulate the...
What does a vendor management system look like and what are the vendor qualifications (certifications, ethics, compliance, etc.)?
Hi everybody. I'd like to get your opinion on the discussion about RfP versus RfS (Request for Solution). How do you see the difference? I am always using the term RfP for the activities to...
A Hot Market, But Questions About ROI, Vendors, And Integration Remain
Forrester has identified pervasive video as one of the four "groundswell" technologies that IT leadership will use to empower their employees over the next decade. Since Forrester's insights on video...
Value Communication: The SVM Practice Playbook
Many sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals fear getting called into their CIO's office to justify their value. This fear often has some justification: Because executive leaders often...

In the realm of IT services sourcing, the strategic decisions and vendor selection process for your company's applications and infrastructures are perhaps the most important. Your service...

IT Archetype Serves As The Foundation For Effective Organizational Alignment
Although most companies understand the need for a more strategic vendor management office (VMO), many of these companies don't know where to organize their vendor management activities. Because...
In Q3 2011, Forrester fielded its second annual Global Sourcing And Vendor Management Priorities Survey to 156 sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals. In this survey, SVM professionals...
What do I have to do to prepare for defining a sourcing strategy?
Imagine the following: You’re about to embark on a road trip through the desert. Anyone who loves living would put the car they rely on into a repair shop prior to starting this journey to make...
Aligning Key Stakeholders With Sourcing Process Increases Value
Forrester defines different generations of outsourcing capabilities within firms based on the level of experience. Companies starting on their outsourcing initiatives are defined as "first...

What do I have to do to prepare for defining a sourcing strategy?
What are additional roles/responsibilities of the VMO?
Sourcing and vendor management (SVM) organizations are the professional link between the internal business demand and the external supply resources. SVM professionals have to engage with business...

Skills And Staffing: The SVM Practice Playbook
Many sourcing and vendor management organizations (SVMOs) are delivering effectively against their core mandate today, despite resource constraints. However, most SVM professionals are mapping their...

Processes: The SVM Practice Playbook
Many sourcing and vendor management (SVM) clients struggle to define the core process responsibilities of their job — and that's no surprise given the number of activities that SVM is...

Focus On A Supplier's Market Performance, Not Just Its Delivery Performance
The increasing importance of innovation and strong vendor management to most sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals is having a major effect on the dynamics of sourcing strategy. In...
How To Source VMS And MSP Solutions Today
Forrester clients ask us many questions about services procurement software tools such as dedicated vendor management systems (VMSes) for contingent labor and broader services procurement tools for...

What tools should I use for IT Outsourcing Governance?
The VMO is becoming more and more important for companies. As such, the demand to create a structure is prominent. To avoid pitfalls and get a jump-start on this, we at Forrester designed a workshop...
What does Forrester refer to as co-sourcing model; what is Forrester's definition of a co-sourcing model; and what are the major pros and cons of a co-sourcing model compared to dedicated model?