Consulting, Marketing, and Legal spend have long been considered impervious to strategic sourcing efforts. Spend is decentralized. Decisions about what services to consume, from whom, and under what terms have typically been left in the hands of fairly senior and autonomous stakeholders. Procurement organizations have played relatively small roles in contracting for these services, and contract management has been largely left to the users of the services. Some of that is changing, as the economic downturn has put pressure on anything and everything affecting earnings-per-share and risk mitigation in third-party contracting has gained in importance. Doors are starting to crack open, even in these high-touch, expertise and relationship-oriented service categories, and the assistance of procurement and contract management professionals is starting to be accepted. In this session, Danny Ertel of Vantage Partners shares observations about the challenges in gaining access and building credibility with internal stakeholders, present a framework for thinking about the opportunity and the sourcing strategies most suited to bringing value to these corporate functions, and share examples from practice.You Will Learn: What are the opportunities in sourcing complex services? How do I overcome resistance from stakeholders? What strategies will really deliver value for these categories? Where do I start?Our expertDanny Ertel, Vantage PartnersVantage Partners LLC is a global strategy and management consulting firm that specializes in helping companies achieve breakthrough business results by transforming the way they negotiate and manage relationships with key business partners as well as by enhancing collaboration across functions and business units. Danny Ertel is a founding partner of Vantage Partners, where his practice focuses on assisting organizations, enter into, manage, and (when necessary) remediate strategic relationships, in particular those involving complex and professional services.Danny has written four books, the latest of which is The Point of the Deal: How to Negotiate when Implementation Matters, and a variety of articles for the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Financial Executive, Outsource Magazine, ACC Docket, and more. Danny was previously a partner at Conflict Management, Inc., a senior researcher at the Harvard Negotiation Project, an attorney with Debevoise & Plimpton, and a clerk to the Hon. Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the US Supreme Court.
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