Inquiry Spotlight: Vendor Management, H2 2010 To H1 2011

Forrester fielded 85 formal client inquiries on the topic of vendor management and the development of the vendor management office (VMO) over the past 12 months. These inquiries come from a variety of roles across organizations, not just from sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals, as business units become more capable of bypassing sourcing and IT's third-party vendors play an increasingly strategic role for the business. Overall, most of the inquiries focus on understanding the value proposition of vendor management and the best practices for building a VMO. Forrester views the VMO as a critical response to the growth of third-party IT relationships, which should merit the attention of every IT organization with strategic vendor relationships.