A community bank was excited to offer their customers a chip debit card. But when they called their ATM vendor, they discovered that, even though it was only five years old, the ATM wasn’t chip adaptable. So, they had to replace it. Not only did it cost them a lot of money, customers complained about the time the ATM was out of service. What happened here? It turned out the bank chose their ATM vendor without ever verifying their machine could adapt as the industry moved forward.
Some vendors are only needed for a short time. Others may be necessary to sustain long term growth. Vendor products and services often need to work with other vendor products and services. Too often, vendor selection is done in a vacuum, without taking into account how your vendors will impact the big picture of your company.
At Maple Street, we pay a lot of attention to how long your vendors need to last and how well they can work with each other to help you reach your goals and sustain growth. In fact, we developed a system to do just that. It’s our Vendor Advantage System®. It’s the only complete and comprehensive vendor management system in the industry. A good portion of it involves vendor planning to make sure you don’t end up like that community bank.
What makes our Vendor Advantage System® a game changer? Instead of evaluating vendors in a vacuum, VAS® views vendor selection as part of an overall strategic plan based on the length of time (lifecycle) you will need that vendor. In other words, you’ll know if the vendor can perform and deliver results that are compatible with other vendors and systems it will interact with during its lifecycle. And, at a fair price. So, when it comes time to upgrade from chips to thump prints, you know your ATM vendor will be up to the task.
Another advantage is, by developing strategic vendor planning, you’ll gain the time needed to maximize negotiation power for optimum results, because you’ll know when contracts are due well in advance.
Strategic vendor planning is planning for the long haul, and the Maple Street Team is with you every step of the way. We will not only help you choose the right vendors, we will work with you throughout the vendor’s lifecycle, making certain the vendor performs. How can we do that? Only Maple Street’s VAS® actually measures vendor performance to insure you get what you paid for.
If you’d like to have a conversation about strategic vendor planning for your community bank or credit union, give us a call at 800-513-6839.
The Maple Street Team