INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE
Few IT services today are delivered in totality by the IT service provider. For example, services relying on networks for delivery are likely to depend on a telecommunications provider for links between geographically dispersed sites; hardware maintenance will usually be in the hands of a third-party supplier; commercial software packages will be supported and maintained by external suppliers, often, but not always, the software vendor.
As discussed under service level management, the relationship between these external providers and the IT service provider is in part defined by underpinning contracts between the IT service provider and the third-party suppliers
responsible for supporting services. However, supplier management, which seeks to ensure that suppliers and their services are managed in such a way that the continuing quality and good value for money of IT services is ensured, is about much more than the one-off negotiation of a support contract.