Ken Piddington, CIO of Global Partners, the leading wholesale distributor of refined petroleum products in New England, recently hosted his second annual Strategic Partner Summit, the cornerstone event of an ambitious vendor relationship program he put in place last year to change the way his company works with suppliers.
The key takeaway: It’s working, and vendors are excited to be part of it.
BACKGROUND: Partnering with vendors
It all started because Piddington was sick of event-driven vendor relationships, with contact limited to sales efforts or problem resolution. The program he put in place was designed to get suppliers to “actively contribute to the success of the organization through quality service delivery and innovation” (see a full Q&A).
The annual Summit dinner, one of multiple touch points throughout the year, is used to give suppliers a company update and celebrate a handful of vendors that have gone above and beyond, one of the givebacks for participating in the program. The dinner attracted more than 100 people from 33 vendors, and everyone I talked to gave the whole concept glowing reviews.
For example, Michal Peliwo, director of business solutions at ZEMA, a strategic consulting and software development firm, was down from Canada for the meeting and said it was the first time he had ever been part of something like this. “This is great because you get their vision for the year, and it helps us make sure we can keep providing value.”
Eric Grueter, a systems engineer at NetApp, says he really values having this kind of relationship with a buyer “because you get to see the whole ecosystem. Normally you just see a small slice, so this gives us a much broader idea of their needs.”
NetApp, in fact, took home Global’s vendor award for Innovation, with Piddington saying NetApp really helped identify new ways of looking at technology. Other vendors honored included: Data Dynamics, a supplier of laptops and other gear, which won the Customer Service award, with Piddington saying he now treats them as an extended part of the IT staff; CA, which earned the Teamwork/Collaboration award for “bringing experts out to team with us to move the company forward”; and the Strategic Partner of the Year award was bestowed on Telvent DTN for the many ways the company has helped Global automate its fuel distribution terminals.
All told, Piddington credits the vendor program with saving the company $400,000, dramatically improving vendor relationships and measurably improving quality of service levels. That’s hard to beat.
Even once-reluctant vendors are now stepping up. Oracle’s lack of partnership cost it “significant revenue” last year in terms of projects shelved or shifted to other suppliers, Piddington says. “Now they are here in force.”
