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Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part III

March 11, 2008 | Author: admin | Filed under: Procurement Management, Solicitation & Source Selection, Project Management Best Practices

Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part III (#3 in the series Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership)
By Linda Miller of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Project management offices (PMOs) and project managers (PMs) are a necessity in today’s law firms, to ensure that IT projects stay on track. Anyone acting as a PM on a project requiring multiple outside vendors knows that if not managed properly, chaos can reign. Working with your own staff on a project can usually be orchestrated with ease, but throw in a vendor or two (or more) and the project can quickly get out of hand. Creating a successful partnership between vendors and your own project team is a necessity to ensure project success.

Choosing the Vendor That’s Right for You

Once it has been identified that external resources are necessary, the search begins. When selecting a vendor, consider the following:

• Expertise and reputation
• Local versus nonlocal
• “Partnership” mentality

Look for a vendor with technology/application expertise (certifications) that fit your project needs. Research the vendor’s reputation by networking with other firms who are using vendors and who have successfully deployed the same technology. Research listservs to find reputable vendors with successful law firm experience in the project technology you are deploying. If the firm has a technology consultant, ask for his or her recommendations. Ask vendors to present their expertise to you. Each should provide a proposal for work based on the project scope provided by the law firm.

In a perfect world, firms want a vendor with whom they have an established working relationship or partnership, one that understands the firm’s environment and personalities, has the required skills and expertise to perform the project successfully and is local. However, if the expertise cannot be found locally, it is more cost-effective and critical to project success to bring in an expert rather than hope the local vendor can get up to speed. IT departments should identify the best vendor(s) for the project and develop a partnership mentality regardless of the vendor selected.

This article was first published in ILTA’s July, 2007 white paper titled “Project Management — Broadening Your Scope” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at http://www.iltanet.org.

Linda Miller is co-owner and principal of Traveling Coaches, Inc., leading the company’s team of project managers, application specialists and document management engineers. Linda has extensive experience leading projects with law firms and consulting law firms on project management. Since 1995, Linda has served as the company’s technology partner managing all technical and project management operations. Linda is a dynamic presenter and implementer of project management, adult learning theories (training techniques) and IT management level courses. Linda holds many technical certifications in the legal industry enhancing her valuable experience as a consultant. Linda can be reached at lmiller@travelingcoaches.com.

Related Articles

• Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part VIII
• Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part VII
• Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part IV
• Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part VI

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 and is filed under Procurement Management, Solicitation & Source Selection, Project Management Best Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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