How Vendor Consolidation Simplifies Your Operations

In a previous post, The Benefits of Vendor Management, we discussed how vendor consolidation lets your organization outsource certain services and reduce strategic, operational, compliance, and reputational risks. In this addendum, we’ll hone in on how this increasingly necessary outsourcing practice improves your organization’s operations and bottom line, particularly within the financial sector.

Though heavily regulated, financial institutions can benefit from outsourcing their service and technological needs.

How exactly does vendor consolidation work?

Vendor consolidation or management allows you to limit the number of third-party organizations your business partners with, narrowing the choices down to either a single vendor or a small group of vendors who manage business-critical needs within your organization.

The financial industry must follow legal guidelines when deciding what and to whom they can outsource.

One crucial consideration is the security and transparency you share with your vendors. Financial institutions, more than most other industries, are responsible for the security of their client’s most sensitive information. And this security must extend through any partner they select. This means that your selected vendor must demonstrate their ability to be an extension of your security practices. For example, the organization must be open to consistent review of database processes, back-up procedures, and security reviews on a regular basis.

Ask your vendor how they handle these important security practices, and what their experience has been with other financial institutions in similar contractual situations.

Vendor consolidation and technology management

What if there was a way to outsource some of a financial institution’s most expensive and security-laden services without increasing its exposure to risk?

Rarely does a financial institution have the knowledge, resources, and time to forecast its equipment and technological needs. Vendor consolidation adds the element of fully integrated technology management as well as added security.

Here are some great examples of the technology a single vendor might manage for you:

• Purchasing technology equipment
• Repair and maintenance contracts
• Technology refresh planning
• Software upgrades
• Lifecycle replacement (LCR) plans
• Department moves (connect/disconnect services)
• Help desk services
• Server and network management
• Warranty management

In addition to running your financial institution’s information technology, an integrated technology management firm could help you stay ahead of your equipment, network, software, server, and data security needs.

A single vendor can simplify warranty management

Vendor consolidation can be an invaluable asset when it comes to warranty management. Nothing poses a bigger challenge for small or even large IT departments than keeping track of warranty expiration, renewals, and repairs. When you work with a vendor who is certified to manage warranty repairs, you no longer have to navigate a sea of multiple different manufacturers.

Rely on one vendor to simplify your warranty management.

A full-service technology service provider is a great resource to help you manage a multitude of technology devices and services critical to your day-to-day operations. Think of it as one call to make versus many, many calls.

If you would like to explore just what services could be combined in your organization, call one of our experts.