The usage of Vendor Verification Program (VVP) is common practice in every industry. It provides an opportunity for both suppliers and procurement specialists alike, by certifying that all companies listed have met specified levels of compliance in their industries. For the suppliers that are identified in the VVP, they have the opportunity to generate additional business, and increased revenues from contracting agencies who may not have been aware of their capabilities prior to inclusion in the database. For contracting agencies looking for reliable, capable vendors, they can access the database with the confidence that all businesses listed have been pre-screened to meet qualifications as a verified vendor.

Principal Consulting Group provides VVP as a specialized service to its clients and members. PCG follows a framework through which it evaluates a vendor for various competencies and service specialization. The VVP service is done keeping in mind the requirement of the client for whom PCG is providing. The benefit of this approach is to the clients where they get to know about their delivery partner in a way which is customized to their needs and tailor made to suit their business requirements and budget.

Clients use the PCG framework as decision making tool while evaluating the offshore partner. PCG Vendor Evaluation Framework is designed in house. PCG analysts probe the vendor using detailed questionnaire, on-site visits, discussions and reference checks. PCG’s framework is built to look at four dimensions People, Market & Client, Company and Process. Attributes in each dimensions is evaluated in details and a rating score is given. Weightage to various dimension and attributes is calibrated as per the clients requirements.

Company Dimension: Vendors offshore offerings in various Verticals and Horizontal lines served is understood. The offshore Vendor’s Management Team’s Vision & Mission statements facilitates in understanding the organization goals and objectives. Organization financial stability is also tracked through Revenues in last 3 years. Vendor's reputation and past history, pricing and issues related to returns, guarantees and support are analyzed.

Markets & Clients Dimension: Vendor experience in the various markets in operation is thoroughly analyzed. Geographical exposure of clients currently under service along with customer satisfaction levels achieved is also gathered. Client Case studies and success stories and references are also sought; to come to a conclusion.

Process Dimension: Vendors Processes with respect to operations, quality, delivery, communication and customer handling in Practice is reviewed and analyzed which acts as a pointer towards process maturities and their scalability. Any Industry Certifications sought is collected and verified. Apart from this Infrastructure covering various aspects like physical facilities, telecom bandwidth, network facilities, back up facilities, Internet connectivity, continuous power supply arrangements, etc are also thoroughly verified.

People: Offshore team is the foundation for an outsourced Project’s building. Organization Work culture and the team composure, technical / functional expertise is analyzed. Apart from this the employee hiring and training policies are reviewed and if any measures in place to tackle employee attrition are also understood.

The rating card used for each of these dimension is very fine grain and looks into the fundamentals and very core aspects of the functionality, operation and activity performed by the vendor in the specific dimension. Dimensions are weighed and prioritized after the research team has discussed with the client and identified their pain areas and/or areas of interest. Detailed attributed under each dimension are rated and finally rolled up to score each dimension.

The four ratings cards are again taken through a process of refinement and analysis wherein the analyst team closely looks at clients business, needs and requirements; a final rating score is generated which speaks about the overall match index between the vendor and the client and how suitable they are to do business together.

VVP is a widely available service today in the market and many organizations are providing this service to its clients and members. However, it is understood that VVP is a very high end service and needs to be done by a third party who are not in direct business chain with the client organization. Also, the organization providing VVP should be market aware and up to date with the latest trends in the market. Thus, being informed about the nature of business and space the organization performing VVP is something a company desiring to use this service, has to be aware of. PCG has successfully used its framework to help global SMBs clients identify their offshore partner saving them time and pain.