Practical IT Service Management, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 19: SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT

‘Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.’

Peter F Drucker

Who is a supplier?

A supplier is a third-party organisation, or an individual, responsible for supplying goods and services. Examples are hardware and software vendors, networking and telecom suppliers, outsourcing companies and consultants. No organisation can do its business, or use IT, without depending on one or more suppliers, and ...