Vendor Selection and Trust in the Age of Search Engine Optimization

Abstract
We can’t always do it all ourselves. Choosing the right vendor is critical to your project’s success. Ensuring your goals are aligned, conducting deep due diligence, and creating a win-win scenario for all parties will get you there. This article looks at approaches to help ensure you gather accurate information about your vendor and their capabilities in an era of curated content and search engine optimization (SEO).

Introduction
Would you buy a house with someone after your first date? Have you ever positioned your business for a long-term partnership to discover that your new “partner” just walked away from your order? Do you sometimes get the feeling that your vendor is exhibiting rent-seeking behavior? There are entire departments devoted to contract management and procurement, but this discussion is focused on the project manager and their duty to deliver a successful project on time and on budget, and create a winning team with their vendors to bring even greater success through a solid working relationship.

Unless your project management office (PMO) works exclusively on internal projects, chances are high that some work will need to be sourced from outside of the organization. This may be due to capacity constraints (overflow manufacturing), the need for specialized expertise that your organization doesn’t have (…