DailyPost 1087
VENDOR IS THE ONLY CUSTODIAN!
Vendor is the only custodian of technology seems to be a realisation which all regular users and owners would have gone through. This is of our making. With all apprehensions and criticisms about vendors, if they were to move them out even at the operations stage, most of us would look like orphans. The whole ecosystem has got so attuned to it, that today it is done thing. Whenever there is a slight issue, the first person we look for is the vendor, to the extent that even if the general technical details of a project has to be explained in writing or orally, it is the vendor.
The vendor resources also operate at the owners office and other locations and there is general feeling of them being a part of the organisation. Sometimes it takes an effort to find out that they don’t belong to the same organisation. This is the level of dependence we have reached to. The vendors and the other avatars, consultants, don the mantle of the official machinery in meetings, long winding discussions etc.
With competence not in tune with the times, it is the vendor who becomes the messiah from the tender creation stage itself. Where do you get the validated specifications from and lots of other information required for the bid process management. The world class consultants moved in to take care of this component of the procurement process but a peep into their functioning makes it amply clear that it is the same vendor at the backend.
Project Management Units play a flimsy role of authenticating / validating the technical execution from a management process and finance perspectives. With a bit of an effort the owner’s establishment could have done it. Technology project execution still remains the sole prerogative of the vendor, the quality, the created utility, the integration and finally the delivery, the commissioning and then operations & maintenance. Vendor’s will, integrity and expertise only delivers. Rest are all add ones.
OBJECTIVELY STUDIED PUBLISHED STUDY ON VENDORS CAN BE A GAME CHANGER.
Sanjay Sahay