As a result of the economic downturn over the past few years we have seen a steady increase in the co-sourcing and outsourcing of meeting and event services in the corporate setting. More and more companies seem to be reducing their internal staff and augmenting with 3rd party meeting planning companies, travel management agencies and other Strategic Meetings Management service suppliers. This has created a need for companies to create successful supplier relationships in order to manage their business effectively, efficiently and within expectations. In procurement terms this is referred to as "Supplier Relationship Management", which is a thoughtful and systematic process for integrating suppliers into your business and ensuring their success on your behalf throughout the life of the relationship. Therefore, Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) needs to be a part of the design of your SMM program, not an afterthought.

One of the cornerstones of SRM is the development of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), which I have referred to in previous editions of Keeping it SiMMPle. The Service Level Agreement is a negotiated agreement designed to create common understanding of services, priorities, and responsibilities. By the very nature of discussing SLAs, communications are increasing between the supplier and client. The main concepts of the SLA are that it is a:

• Means of consistent communication
• Conflict prevention tool in that there is a shared understanding of needs and priorities
• Living Document that should be reviewed regularly and updated as business needs change
• Objective basis for measuring effectiveness as both parties are using the same criteria to evaluate quality

Keep in mind that the operative word in Service Level Agreement is Agreement, and both the client and supplier need to be actively involved in developing the SLA. It is not successful if one party or the other develops the SLA in a vacuum and insists that the other party abide by them, especially if the details in the agreement are not realistic. This sounds like a lot of work, and it does take a bit of time to develop meaningful and "SMART" SLAs (see the G is for Grand Goals issue for SMART goals), but the payoff in clarity and measurement of performance is well worth it for suppliers who provide a large portion of services to you. That being said, it may not make sense to establish detailed SLAs for suppliers who just provide occasional services to you.