A key role of the Vendor Management Office (VMO) is to drive innovation from its most strategic suppliers, that is, those with the most strategic role in business success. This push requires multiple levels of oversight in a VMO, such as organizing innovation days; encouraging active supplier participation, idea-sharing, and execution; monitoring business-line VMOs to ensure they track emerging metrics such as process improvement and innovation with strategic suppliers; and fostering cross-functional collaboration to enable a strong platform for strategic supplier partnerships. In this Executive Brief, Everest Group analysts share the best practices to drive innovation from strategic suppliers and recommend a checklist to conduct innovation health checks.
Note: Everest Group publishes Executive Briefs for senior enterprise executives. These briefs address hot industry topics and particularly challenging issues of the day in an easy-to-digest format.