Community Discussion: How do you assess the performance and value delivery of external vendors, and ensure alignment with your department's goals?

Legal Operations professionals talk about how to assess performance and value of vendors.

Community Discussion: How do you assess the performance and value delivery of external vendors, and ensure alignment with your department's goals?

(Author) Lead Legal Operations Associate:

How do you assess the performance and value delivery of external vendors, and ensure alignment with your department's goals?

Legal Operations Responses:

  • Fintech here! We've adopted a performance scorecard system for our external vendors. It's a collaborative approach where we set clear expectations and evaluate vendors based on agreed-upon metrics; like responsiveness, quality of work, and adherence to deadlines.
  • Transparency is key in our vendor relationships. We hold regular review meetings to discuss performance metrics, challenges, and ways to improve the value delivery (these typically happen once a month). This ongoing dialogue has been instrumental in aligning our goals.
  • Utilizing technology to track and analyze vendor performance has been a game-changer for us. It allows for an objective evaluation and facilitates informed discussions with vendors on areas of improvement.
  • I am in the media industry, so if priorities change, they change fast and publicly. We have a structured feedback loop in place with all our external vendors. Both positive feedback and areas for improvement are discussed openly, promoting a culture of continuous improvement and alignment with our objectives. These happen often so we all can get used to the criticism and get to a place of smooth operations.
  • Benchmarking against industry standards and peer companies has helped us to gauge the value delivery of our vendors effectively. It also provides a basis for constructive discussions on performance enhancement. And, of course, having open conversations about these standards with our vendors is helpful. 
  • Our strategy involves setting clear performance indicators and having quarterly business reviews with our vendors to discuss achievements, challenges, and future goals. It's all about fostering a partnership approach for mutual success.
  • We've started a vendor management program that includes training sessions for our vendors to understand our industry-specific legal challenges and expectations better. It's helped in aligning our goals and improving vendor performance. It also helps vendors with buy-in on solidifying the relationship.
  • I am in the energy sector. We conduct annual performance reviews with our vendors, where we discuss the accomplishments and challenges of the past year. It's a great way to ensure alignment and plan for the upcoming year.
  • Engaging in open communication and providing constructive feedback has been key to ensuring our vendors are aligned with our departmental goals and are continuously improving their service delivery.
  • I'm in the tech sector, and we use a combination of performance analytics, regular check-ins, and an open feedback channel to assess vendor performance. It's important to have a collaborative relationship where we can work together towards achieving our department's objectives.

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