Each year, Forrester’s Services & Sourcing Forum examines critical Issues facing Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals:

• A company decides to outsource its infrastructure and sell its assets to the outsourcer to add much needed capital to its books. If the contract is purely focused on the financial aspects of the deal, the company could find that it does not have the appropriate service-level agreements in place to grow the business.
• Economic distress causes many firms to reassess their vendor relationships and risk mitigation plans. Firms need to focus their vendor management efforts on building high-value relationships with viable services firms to ensure continued success of their corporate brand and business operations.
• Vendor managers, under pressure from senior executives to cut costs, impose unilateral rate cuts on suppliers only to find that junior people have been substituted and productivity has dropped — costing the client more money. But as the economy improves, will those suppliers still deliver good service? Or will the client now struggle to improve damaged relationships — or even be forced to create relationships with new vendors when the previous ones prove beyond repair? 
• Come to Forrester’s Services & Sourcing Forum 2009 and learn the services, sourcing, and vendor strategies that will enable your company to emerge from this recession as a leader, not merely a survivor. After the downturn, sourcing and vendor management’s role will be more crucial than ever for firms trying to protect their futures. Procurement executives negotiate the contracts for products and services that the company will use when the economy turns around — so they must ensure that those agreements don’t become anchors as company goals change.

ACTION-ORIENTED TRACK SESSIONS GIVE YOU TAKEAWAYS YOU CAN USE IMMEDIATELY

In addition to our deep, experienced roster of keynote speakers, the Services & Sourcing Forum is delivering a new style of track sessions that help you across the sourcing life cycle:

• Strategy. Each of our four tracks starts with a strategy session, designed to give you a long-term view of that track topic.
• Governance. Session two within the tracks will focus on the midrange view you need to create the oversight, processes, and governance models to make your strategy work in practice.
• Execution. These short-term “action sessions” are longer and more interactive, to help you develop the immediate tactics and steps you can implement when you leave the conference and get back to your office.

Who Should Attend?

• Enterprise executives who must outperform at a sourcing level to ensure their firm’s success Sourcing executives who need to create sourcing strategies with short-term payback while understanding the long-term implications
• CIOs and senior IT managers who need to make short-term technology decisions while protecting long-term goals
• Procurement executives who execute sourcing strategies that must balance risk, cost, and business value
• IT services managers looking to optimize their offshore spend, governance practices, and geographic footprint
• Vendor management professionals who are responsible for ensuring that sourcing relationships deliver the results promised — both today and in the future

Why Attend?

Attendees of the Services & Sourcing Forum will learn how to successfully balance short-term requirements and long-term objectives. They will get answers to critical questions about sourcing leadership, including:

• How do I pick the best balance along the spectrum of short-term and long-term needs, given my company’s specific situation?
• What is the best way to communicate this sourcing balancing act to my senior executives to gain and maintain their support?
• Which vendor management practices really save money and improve supplier performance?
• What pitfalls must I avoid in the coming year to ensure that my firm thrives in an improved economy?
• Which governance and sourcing strategies and processes deliver lasting returns and which ones provide fleeting, false economies?