Episode 49: Relationship & Supplier Management

Strong relationships are central to successful services, and this episode explores two practices that enable them: relationship management and supplier management. Relationship management ensures that customers, users, and stakeholders feel heard, valued, and supported, building trust that sustains service delivery. Supplier management ensures that external partners deliver what’s needed, when it’s needed, and at agreed levels of quality. Both practices reinforce ITIL’s emphasis on co-creation of value, since services often depend on external inputs as well as internal capabilities.

We’ll illustrate these practices with examples such as managing a cloud provider contract while keeping regular communication with internal business units. The exam may test your ability to distinguish between internal relationship management and external supplier management, so listen carefully to the nuances. Together, these practices highlight that service management is as much about people and partnerships as it is about processes and tools. This episode was produced by BareMetalCyber.com.