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Poll: What do you appreciate the most in working with companies with dedicated Vendor Management?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Mario Freitas
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Other Jan 21, 2021

Vendor Manager as opposed to hte "Project Managers" we usually deal with, who are not managers and have no idea what a project is.
Dealing with a person that is actually prepared to deal with the jobs (if it's a real VM), instead of someone they found around the corner, with very little training and knowledge in the area/work, who usually does not understand the issues if anything goes an inch out of track (very common).


[Edited at 2021-01-21 06:13 GMT]


Christopher Schröder
expressisverbis
 
Samuel Murray
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@Diego Jan 21, 2021

Diego Cresceri wrote:
What do you appreciate the most in working with companies with dedicated vendor management?
- Having a single point of contact?
- Experiencing increased human touch?
- Noticing more attention to the vendors?
- Working with leaner procedures?
- Feeling higher involvement in the company?


If by "dedicated vendor management" you mean a person or department responsible for the official or administrative side of the agency's interaction with suppliers (e.g. ensuring that NDAs are signed and contact details are up to date, being a point of contact for suppliers who have questions about their relationship with the agency, e.g. invoicing procedures, etc.), then I must say that I don't really "appreciate" anything about it in general.

Whether an agency's vendor management department is a good thing or a bad thing varies between agencies. Some agencies are terrible at this , and some are fantastic at this.

As for the options listed in the poll... "Having a single point of contact"? No... in fact, it adds a point of contact. "Experiencing increased human touch"? No, it reduces it. "Noticing more attention to the vendors"? Not really... say you have 10 PMs and 1000 freelancers, then adding one extra person (or an extra department of, say, 3 people) as the "vendor manager" isn't going to result in a noticeable increase in "attention to the vendors", is it? "Working with leaner procedures"? Rarely... in fact, having to remember the "vendor manager" simply makes it more complicated for the freelancer to figure out which person he should contact for which kind of a problem.

I'm not saying vendor management is a bad thing, but it's existence doesn't automatically improve things.


Marina Taffetani
Anton Konashenok
Ingvild Karlsen
 
Tom in London
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No idea Jan 21, 2021

I still have no idea what "dedicated Vendor Management" is.

 
Christopher Schröder
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Really? Jan 21, 2021

Tom in London wrote:

I still have no idea what "dedicated Vendor Management" is.


I gave you a crystal-clear step-by-step explanation earlier...

Edit: As did Samuel and Kevin!

[Edited at 2021-01-21 10:33 GMT]


Mervyn Henderson (X)
expressisverbis
 
Samuel Murray
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@Tom Jan 21, 2021

Tom in London wrote:
I still have no idea what "dedicated vendor management" is.


Methinks you do, but here you go.

1. The author wrote "management" but he really meant "management department" or "manager".
2. In the business world, the word "vendor" means a supplier of goods or services. You are a vendor, Tom, because you supply translations to the client or the agency.
3. In many companies or agencies, most vendor management tasks are split between the project manager and the accounting department, although some such tasks are given to junior project managers to give them something to do while they learn the ropes.

Tasks performed by the vendor manager include finding new translators, negotiating base rates with translators, helping translators understand the company's policies e.g. preferred invoicing procedures, dealing with complaints about project managers, ensuring that the translator's information is up to date, etc. If a dedicated person does these things, it frees up time for the project manager to more efficiently deal with things that relate specifically to specific translation projects.

In an ideal world, a dedicated vendor manager is beneficial for both the client and the translator. In some cases, the vendor manager is authorised to deal with issues that a project manager isn't, e.g. price negotiations.

I think about 1/3 of my agency clients have a vendor manager, but it's not always transparent. I can't always tell whether the person contacting me is a vendor manager or a project manager, but it usually doesn't matter. If I ask the wrong question to the wrong person, they usually just forward my mail to the right person.


[Edited at 2021-01-21 11:10 GMT]


Christopher Schröder
expressisverbis
 
Tom in London
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NO! Jan 21, 2021

Samuel Murray wrote:

.....You are a vendor, Tom


No! I'm not. I don't accept that definition.

And why do you say you think I understand what "dedicated Vendor Management" is when I've already said that I don't?


 
Christopher Schröder
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A hunch Jan 21, 2021

Tom in London wrote:
And why do you say you think I understand what "dedicated Vendor Management" is when I've already said that I don't?


Perhaps because it’s been spelt out several times here already, and even if it’s not as self-explanatory to you as it is to me, it doesn’t take much working out, especially for someone whose job is all about figuring out the meaning of words.

Coupled with a certain track record of intransigence

But that’s just a hunch...


expressisverbis
Thomas T. Frost
 
Tom in London
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Why Jan 21, 2021

Chris S wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
And why do you say you think I understand what "dedicated Vendor Management" is when I've already said that I don't?


Perhaps because it’s been spelt out several times here already, and even if it’s not as self-explanatory to you as it is to me, it doesn’t take much working out, especially for someone whose job is all about figuring out the meaning of words.

Coupled with a certain track record of intransigence

But that’s just a hunch...


Why are you answering a question that was put to Samuel?


 
Christopher Schröder
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Why not? Jan 21, 2021

Tom in London wrote:
Why are you answering a question that was put to Samuel?

Because I invested time in helping you and you’re just being awkward.


expressisverbis
Thomas T. Frost
 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
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Still going? Jan 21, 2021

I saw this was still live. I was wondering if someone could explain to me what "dedicated vendor management" is. Anyone at all, really ...

Tom?


Christopher Schröder
expressisverbis
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
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No idea Jan 21, 2021

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

I saw this was still live. I was wondering if someone could explain to me what "dedicated vendor management" is. Anyone at all, really ...

Tom?


I have read all the posts here and I still genuinely have no idea what "dedicated Vendor Management" is.


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
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Time to seek help Jan 21, 2021

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

I saw this was still live. I was wondering if someone could explain to me what "dedicated vendor management" is. Anyone at all, really ...


It’s clearly a more perplexing issue than I had anticipated. Perhaps this link will be of some assistance:

https://taulia.com/glossary/what-is-vendor-management/

Admittedly, it doesn’t touch on what dedicated means. Or to whom it might be dedicated. Perhaps that is just one of life’s eternal mysteries.

Like why someone would choose to double down in such a situation in such a Trumpesque manner.


Mervyn Henderson (X)
expressisverbis
 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
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Dedicated Jan 21, 2021

Thanks Chris. I took a look at it, but there's no dedicated section there, I think.

If I weren't forced to use "vendor" frequently in translating contracts, for example, and I mean forced because the text reads "el vendedor" ["vendor"], or forced to read it or hear about it when the vendor manager swings by to say "Hi, how are you, you're much too expensive, that's how you are", I'd probably only use it in the one scenario it's always seemed natural to use it in, and that's "ice-cre
... See more
Thanks Chris. I took a look at it, but there's no dedicated section there, I think.

If I weren't forced to use "vendor" frequently in translating contracts, for example, and I mean forced because the text reads "el vendedor" ["vendor"], or forced to read it or hear about it when the vendor manager swings by to say "Hi, how are you, you're much too expensive, that's how you are", I'd probably only use it in the one scenario it's always seemed natural to use it in, and that's "ice-cream vendor". When I was a kid we occasionally said "ice-cream man" too, unless it was a woman (but it never was), in which case "ice-cream woman".

Tom, I think "dedicated vendor management" means the full-time management of vendors, necessarily focusing on screwing them around, with no other services provided for the company, and no moonlighting either.

So if the VM is asked to go and get the coffees for everyone around the office or take out the rubbish, he or she can say, I can't do that, because a dedicated VM does vendor stuff only, and that's nothing to do with vendors. And if the VM is working as a security guard or a DJ or a barman or a stripper at night, then the VM is a non-dedicated VM because he or she is not dedicating their entire professional capacity to vendors.

[Edited at 2021-01-21 12:58 GMT]
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Christopher Schröder
Zibow Retailleau
expressisverbis
Thomas T. Frost
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
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Dedication Jan 21, 2021

Mervyn Henderson wrote:

So if the VM is asked to go and get the coffees for everyone around the office or take out the rubbish, he or she can say, I can't do that, because a dedicated VM does vendor stuff only, and that's nothing to do with vendors. And if the VM is working as a security guard or a DJ or a barman or a stripper at night, then the VM is a non-dedicated VM because he or she is not dedicating their entire professional capacity to vendors.

[Edited at 2021-01-21 12:58 GMT]


Well now you've gone and made things properly complicated.

You see, my interpretation is that dedicated vendor management doesn't have to mean a team of dedicated vendor managers, but could well just be a function dedicated to vendor management that could in fact be fulfilled by one or more undedicated vendor managers and part-time strippers. Which, I suspect, is normally the case.


Mervyn Henderson (X)
Zibow Retailleau
expressisverbis
Thomas T. Frost
 
Samuel Murray
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@Vendor Jan 21, 2021

Tom in London wrote:
Samuel Murray wrote:
.....You are a vendor, Tom

No! I'm not. I don't accept that definition.

Do you mean "I dislike that term"? The definition is fine. Several dictionaries agree.

I'm trying to think of ways in which you can be "not a vendor", Tom. If you're a translator, and you work as a translator, but you're not a vendor, then it means that you're not translating for clients. Perhaps you are a full-time employee at some or other company for whom you do translations. Or, perhaps you are a hobbyist translator who translates for his own pleasure.

Either way, even if we are all mistaken and you are not a vendor after all, the fact remains that a "dedicated vendor manager" at a translation agency is simply someone whose job it is to manage the agency's translators and whose job title isn't any of the other positions that usually work for an agency.

[Edited at 2021-01-21 13:29 GMT]


Christopher Schröder
expressisverbis
 
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Poll: What do you appreciate the most in working with companies with dedicated Vendor Management?






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