Ferrum Technology Services Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of businesses to rethink their spending strategies, and one side-effect from making cuts to your operational budget is having to deal with your vendor representatives more frequently. Today, we’ll talk about how a vendor management service can not only help you manage your supply chain, but also mitigate the headaches caused by aggressive vendor reps.  

The small business owner has to do a lot. In fact, the smaller the business, the more he/she has to do. One thing that many small business owners do is make technology decisions. By acting like the organization's CIO or CTO (short for Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer, respectively), the small business owner needs to understand what his/her organization’s technology needs are. Or, he/she needs to outsource that role. 

The small business owner wears a lot of different hats. The smaller the business, the more hats he/she has to wear. One hat many small business owners wear is that of CIO or CTO. Short for Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer, respectively, these positions typically make technology decisions for the company they work for. 

We’re not overestimating the importance of vendors by stating that they are literally what make your business work. The company that provides your Internet service, or the software you use to track your employees’ workflow, enables you to get work done. Operations would be impeded without the solutions these vendors offer. Of course, not all vendors provide adequate services. We’ll help you weed out the good from the bad.

Vendors can be impossible to deal with, and this problem escalates when you have quite a lot of them. Every service or product your business takes advantage of comes from a vendor, and if you have to work directly with them every time something goes awry, you’re looking at a lot of wasted time and effort. Thankfully, there’s an easier way to work with your vendors, and ironically, it involves not working with them at all--but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s a process you need to go through before you can most efficiently take advantage of vendor management services.

The appeal of a do-it-yourself project is that you’re the one doing the work. With the Do It Yourself (DIY) approach, whatever it is you're working on, you know for sure that it’s getting the attention it deserves. This is why it can be rather unnerving to have someone who you don’t fully know or trust work on your stuff. This is especially the case when it comes to your company’s technology.

You can hear what they are saying, but it just doesn't make any sense. You zone out. Cookies. Rambo. The Yankees. "Does that sound good", says your IT technician as you snap back into the conversation. "Sure!", you say reluctantly. Your tech is a master in the ancient art of Technologese.