The NET+ Business, Procurement and Legal Advisory Committee (BPLAC) has sponsored a working group to focus on vendor management in higher education IT. The working group will develop and document best practices to share with the community and Internet2's NET+ program.
BPLAC has identified the following areas where vendor management activities are performed as foci for the Working Group:
- Operational (technical) - performance related.
- Management of day-to-day or operational interactions with vendors. Maintaining good relationships with vendor technical staff for operational activities, security requirements, and monitoring SLAs.
- Procurement Management - internal process and price related.
- Selecting vendors (RFPs/contracting), maintenance of vendor information, legal risk mitigation, payment relations (Procure-to-pay), tax information and documentation
- Strategic Relationship - relationship and value related.
- Bigger picture relationship activities with vendors, shared vision of product(s) roadmap within the institution. Quarterly business reviews, partnering activities to gain value from the contract and overall vendor relationship (wide-scale adoption initiatives, donations/development, internships, etc), planning budgeting/finance
If you see yourself in any of the focal areas and have a passion for improving vendor management practices in research and higher ed, we invite you to join the working group! Please email netplus@internet.edu if you are interested in participating.
Name | Institution | Role | Focus Area(s) |
---|---|---|---|
Sean O'Brien | Internet2 | Sponsor | |
Emily Perry | University of Arizona | Chair |
|
Lester Greenman | Northwestern University | Participant |
|
Cindy Griffiths | Carnegie Mellon University | Participant |
|
Dan Lewis | Clemson University | Participant |
|
Marra Austin | College of William & Mary | Participant |
|
Rebecca Kinkead | College of William & Mary | Participant |
|
Joseph Holewa | Harvard University | Participant |
|
Sean Nicholson | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Participant |
|
Emma Levett | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Participant |
|
Alicia Klein | University of Maryland Global Campus | Participant |
|
Phan Truong | University of Maryland Global Campus | Participant |
|
Steve Tanner | University of Wisconsin - Madison | Participant |
|
Sue Gavazzi | Internet2 | Coordinator |