Automated vendor management system improves productivity and reduces costs.

Article Summary:

Thousands of Cisco employees worldwide rely on a steadily increasing number of outside vendors for technology-related services and Cisco needed to automate its processes for delivering and reporting vendor services.

Before Cisco established its vendor services management program and corporate guidelines, employees and departments independently contracted services from local providers, which resulted in many expensive parallel and duplicate efforts. In addition, managers needed more visibility into actual spending on services, by vendor and by employee, to help them manage and reduce costs.

This case study describes the processes used and benefits Cisco experienced when it streamlined and automated vendor services delivery and reporting, including:

• Improved service pricing
• Minimized IT overhead from automated workflow
• Shortened service delivery times
• Increased management visibility of employee and department spending for services