Vendors are key to the success of almost every information technology consultant. Strong vendor relationships help good consultants excel, but a dysfunctional vendor alliance can sink even the most astute of consulting firms. Thus, vendor relationships are critical, yet their importance is often (and easily) overlooked.

So what’s a time-pressed consultant to do? This checklist, written by Erik Eckel for TechRepublic Premium, can help. It’s a simple guide based on the lessons the author learned owning and operating their own IT consulting firm. Use this checklist to select the best vendors, track your satisfaction levels, and maintain strong partnerships.

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III. RETAIN FLEXIBILITY WHEN PREPARING AGREEMENTS

Be wary of entering exclusive arrangements or signing agreements that commit your consulting firm to long-term (12 months or more) initiatives. Once a consulting firm is prohibited from conducting business with competing manufacturers or service providers or ending a vendor relationship, the consultant becomes beholden to that single provider.

Be careful not to jump headfirst into any vendor relationship. Toward that end, when instituting partner agreements or establishing reseller relationships, consider the following questions:

Does the consulting group retain the right to work with competing vendors?

Are there any penalties for signing with competing vendors or failing to sign exclusivity contracts? If so, how significant are those penalties?

Who owns the customers?

• Unless a vendor has a strong and proven lead-generation program, don’t sign any contract that results in vendors owning any clients or direct communications resulting from the relationship with your consulting group.

• Guard against vendors with large internal sales teams that might be tempted or that are known to directly target resellers’ customers.

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TIME SAVED: Crafting this content required 24 hours of dedicated writing, editing, research, and design.