By Allison Thresher
Discussions with clients in recent inquiries and at the first edition of the Building The Vendor Management workshop inspired this blog.

Forrester defines the sourcing lifecycle as including three major elements: preparation, execution, and vendor management. While everyone seems to agree about the activities included within this lifecycle, we’ve found that there exists significant debate concerning what falls into each area as well as what you might call these elements (sourcing? Procurement? Vendor management?).

To illustrate: in the case of demand management, one could say that this hits at both the preparation and vendor management phases of the cycle. Moreover, from an organizational standpoint, this might well be the responsibility of either procurement or the vendor management group. 

We’re interested to see how our clients and readers weigh in on this issue. Please feel free to leave comments or questions on this issue. Analysts from the team will be weighing in as well.