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The State of Vendor Portfolio Management

Image of Joanne Lustig

Author: Joanne Lustig, Vice President & Lead Analyst

Vendor portfolio managers face the greatest challenge Outsell has seen over the 10 years that we have been observing the information management landscape and collecting benchmark and best practice data. We have watched the full-service library model shift over recent years to focus on content procurement and management, and we explicitly set out to uncover a deeper understanding of vendor portfolio management issues and practices in our latest annual Information Management Benchmark study. A total of 591 corporate, government, healthcare, and education library/information center and vendor portfolio information managers responded to the 2009 study. This report specifically examines vendor portfolio management issues and practices. We will publish a separate report, “Information Management Benchmark: 2009 State of the Function,” later this year covering benchmarks and best practices in general among libraries and information centers. This report contains:

- Analysis of VPM changes and trends since 2005;
- A look at the impact of those changes and trends on the information industry;
- Essential comparative operating metrics for those in the VPM function;
- Implications for information managers, particularly vendor portfolio managers.


Pub Date: August 26, 2009
Type: Briefing
Segments: IM
Keywords: Vendor Portfolio Management
Pages: 19
Format: PDF Application_pdf

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Table of Contents

  • Why This Topic?
  • Methodology and Background
  • Buyers Feel the Pain
    1. IM Budgets Sharply Down
    2. Declining “Bang for the Content Buck”
    3. Realizing a “More with Less” Philosophy
    4. Global Contracts Prevail
  • Centralized Buying Yields Positive Return-on-Investment
  • Funding Model Trends
    1. Impact of Funding Models
  • VPM Best Practices
    1. Content Planning
    2. Content Evaluation and Selection
    3. Contract Management
    4. Product and Vendor Measurement
    5. VPM Challenges: It’s All About the Money
  • Imperatives for Information Managers

    • Tables & Figures

  • Table 1. Key VPM Benchmarks, 2005, 2009, and 2010 (P)
  • Figure 1. Budget and Content Spending Comparisons, 2005 and 2009
  • Table 2. Benefits of Enterprise-Wide Spending, 2009
  • Figure 2. IM Funding Model Shifts, 2002-2009
  • Table 3. Content Planning Activities, 2005 and 2009
  • Table 4. Content Evaluation and Selection Activities, 2005 and 2009
  • Table 5. Contract Management Activities, 2005 and 2009
  • Table 6. Attributes Used to Measure Content Vendors and Products
  • Table 7. Top Three Vendor-Related Challenges