Vendor Relations Research Articles

Blockchain and smart contracts for supply chain transparency and vendor management

Blockchain technology and smart contracts are emerging as transformative tools for enhancing transparency and efficiency in supply chain management and vendor relations. Traditional supply chains often face challenges such as inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and susceptibility to fraud (Kouhizadeh & Sarkis, 2018). Blockchain, a decentralized ledger technology, coupled with smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms directly written into code, offers promising solutions to these challenges (Wang, Han, & Beynon-Davies, 2019). This paper explores the application of blockchain and smart contracts in these domains, examining their potential to provide immutable records, streamline processes, and mitigate risks (Casado-Vara et al., 2018). Through a comprehensive analysis of current literature and case studies, we identify key benefits including improved transparency, enhanced efficiency, and better risk management (Christidis & Devetsikiotis, 2016; Tian, 2016). Our findings suggest that blockchain and smart contracts can significantly improve supply chain transparency and vendor management, though their implementation requires careful consideration of technical, regulatory, and organizational factors (Saberi et al., 2019). Notable case studies, such as Walmart’s blockchain pilot for food safety and De Beers' diamond tracking initiative, illustrate the practical benefits and challenges of adopting these technologies in real-world scenarios (Casino, Dasaklis, & Patsakis, 2019; Kshetri, 2018). Despite the promising outlook, further research is needed to address scalability, interoperability, and regulatory compliance issues to fully realize the potential of blockchain and smart contracts in supply chain management (Hughes et al., 2019).

Streamlining streaming videos: moving towards an efficient streaming video workflow in Alma/Primo

This case study intends to demonstrate the lessons learned as an academic library went through several changes to accommodate an increase in streaming video requests on their campus. A historical outline of the changing landscape of streaming video procedures and platforms will be provided for context. The iterative changes in vendor relations, internal workflows, and resources allocated to adapt to the changing nature of streaming videos as well as lessons learned during implementation will be presented.

Free Lunch? Vendor Offers during COVID-19

Academic libraries received numerous free offers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing business literature suggests that there are benefits and costs associated with free offers for both the businesses that provide them and their customers. This study analyzes the free offers received during a three-month period at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The author monitored direct offers from vendors, LIBLICENSE-L@LISTSERV.CRL.EDU, information obtained from peers, and publicly available data from the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). The offers that would normally require paid institutional subscriptions were included in the study. Databases were the largest offer category (41%), followed-by e-books (20%). Most (76%) required registration by library representatives, allowing vendors to track usage data. Only a small portion (8%) of these free offers was already held at the study site, Penn State University Libraries (PSUL). The implication might be that most of the offers were either new, not high-priority or not affordable for PSUL. The findings of this study suggest free offers provide intangible value for both libraries and vendors that cannot be measured through cost-per-use data analysis. For example, libraries gained opportunities to trial new products without any risk, temporarily expand their collections, and help users during the crisis when access to the library buildings was disrupted. Vendors increased product visibility, gained customer information and usage data, identified potential customers, and created goodwill with the library community. This study is relevant to business librarianship not only because these free offers included business and related disciplines but also because some business librarians engage with vendor relations and need to understand different business models including free offers.

Book Review: Reengineering the Library: Issues in Electronic Resources Management

The increasing prevalence of electronic resources in academic libraries has forced information professionals to rethink many aspects of library services. The last couple of decades have seen significant updates to national standards of practice and librarian core competencies. This book presents a well-rounded view of the current state of electronic resources management in academic libraries, with chapters covering a wide variety of topics, including discovery, analytics, vendor relations, and departmental reorganization. Even if managing electronic resources is not one of your primary job duties, this book can provide valuable insight into an ever-growing field of librarianship that impacts library service at all levels.

Transforming Library Vendor Relations: Turning Relationships into Partnerships

Transforming Library Vendor Relations: Turning Relationships into Partnerships

The Dark Side of Outsourcing: Outsourcing Scope, Vendor Relations & Value Creation in IT Services

As outsourcing expands in scope to increasingly higher-end tasks, the outcomes and implications for outsourcing firms remain unclear. The current literature poses contradictory predictions on the e...

There's Work to be Done: Exploring Library–Vendor Relations

Academic library and vendor professionals were surveyed to determine strengths and weaknesses of these relationships—revealing, in some cases, conflicting priorities. The two groups offered perspectives on communication preferences, organizational strategies, priorities, and local challenges. Trends emerging from the survey results highlight a need to explore the library–vendor relationship further. This article will be of interest to academic librarians and staff working regularly with vendors in acquisitions or collection management.

Educate Your Entire Team on Vendor Relations

Educate Your Entire Team on Vendor Relations

SU‐F‐E‐15: Initial Experience Implementing a Case Method Teaching Approach to Radiation Oncology Physics Residents, Graduate Students and Doctorate of Medical Physics Students

Purpose:Case Method Teaching approach is a teaching tool used commonly in business school to challenge students with real‐world situations—i.e. cases. The students are placed in the role of the decision maker and have to provide a solution based on the multitude of information provided. Specifically, students must develop an ability to quickly make sense of a complex problem, provide a solution incorporating all of the objectives (at time conflicting) and constraints, and communicate that solution in a succinct, professional and effective manner. The validity of the solution is highly dependent on the auxiliary information provided in the case and the basic didactic knowledge of the student. A Case Method Teaching approach was developed and implemented into an on‐going course focused on AAPM Task Group reports at UTHSCSA.Methods:A current course at UTHSCSA reviews and discusses 15 AAPM Task Group reports per semester. The course is structured into three topic modules: Imaging QA, Stereotactic Radiotherapy, and Special Patient Measurements—i.e. pacemakers, fetal dose. After a topic module is complete, the students are divided into groups (2–3 people) and are asked to review a case study related to the module topic. Students then provide a solution presented in an executive summary and class presentation.Results:Case studies were created to address each module topic. Through team work and whole‐class discussion, a collaborative learning environment was established. Students additionally learned concepts such vendor relations, financial negotiations, capital project management, and competitive strategy.Conclusion:Case Method Teaching approach is an effective teaching tool to further enhance the learning experience of radiation oncology physics students by presenting them with though‐provoking dilemmas that require students to distinguish pertinent from peripheral information, formulate strategies and recommendations for action, and confront obstacles to implementation.

Lessons Learned: A Primo Usability Study

The University of Houston Libraries implemented Primo as the primary search option on the library website in May 2014. In May 2015, the Libraries released a redesigned interface to improve user experience with the tool. The Libraries took a user-centered approach to redesigning the Primo interface by conducting a "think-aloud" usability test in order to gather user feedback and identify needed improvements. This article describes the methodology and findings from the usability study, the changes that were made to the Primo interface as a result, and implications for discovery system vendor relations and library instruction.

Vendor Relations and Implementation of Health it Projects

Vendor relations are an important factor in implementing Health IT systems. We examined this issue as part of a qualitative study using in-depth interviewing to explore thinking about management of the implementation process for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems. Fourteen physicians in four Thai hospitals were interviewed, as well as a major vendor with extensive experience installing such systems. Both physicians and the vendor confirmed the need for good customer input, and confirmed that usually there are channels for such communication. However, many physicians said that communication to vendors is often limited to a liaison team, a small group of physicians in management, and/or the hospital IT staff, and most physicians do not have direct contact. To get better user involvement, some direct interactions between physician users and vendors are needed.

Teaching students what we do: A collection management course

In recent years, the landscape of collection management has been radically transformed by the explosion of digital content, the importance of collaborative initiatives for content acquisition and shared print management, new licensing and acquisition models, the dramatic shift in facilitating access versus ownership, and a crowded field of providers and platforms. The academic library itself has been utterly changed in the past two decades. What does this mean for the ways in which we teach the next generation of librarians about the activities, goals, and issues involved in collection management? I have taught a collection management course three times, from 2010 to 2012, at the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa-Canada. The Master of Information Studies program was established in 2007, and the school is very proud to have received full accreditation from ALA in 2014. A few challenges Expectations of collections work are rapidly changing. As Peggy Johnson has noted, “User expectations about the services, collections, and access that libraries should provide are profoundly affecting collection development and management.” 1 LIS students need to be aware of business practices around e-resources licensing, vendor relations, and consortial dynamics and goals. Moreover, they have to become attuned to the bewildering variety of acquisition models for ebooks and preservation strategies for both ebooks and print books (and other materials), and to understand why these issues are so visceral for libraries. It is also essential for students to understand the impact of networked resources, scholarly publishing and the ever-evolving ecosystem of players in the supply chain, and budget constraints that are becoming tighter each year. With all of this knowledge, however, they need to learn how to stay close to the pulse of their patrons’ needs and expectations. Therefore liaison work and partnership are central to success. The challenge for anyone teaching collection management to LIS students is to articulate the paradigm shift from local collections to a networked and collaborative model, 2

Frontlines: A Tip Of the Hat

On a Saturday morning in late June, a smart group of healthcare technology management professionals gathered in a hotel conference room in San Antonio to talk about you. Well, kind of.The group was the BI&T Editorial Board and the meeting, part of AAMI's Annual Conference, provided a chance for board members to talk about those professional issues and challenges that matter to you. The discussion, colored by a variety of opinions, covered a broad range of subjects, including health information technology, equipment maintenance challenges, vendor relations, FDA regulations, education, and professional development.The meeting crystalized what the BI&T Editorial Board is all about: helping to identify priorities for the journal. The insights of the board members help to set the general direction of what we cover throughout the year and they shape each issue. Several board members are regular contributors of articles and columns. Even more help out—as do others—with BI&T's critical peer reviews, which help to ensure the accuracy, quality, and integrity of each published article.Who are these folks? They are clinical engineers, educators, consultants, managers, sterilization veterans, health information technology experts, industry leaders, and biomedical equipment technicians.Their names appear to the right on this page. What that listing doesn't tell you is that they are volunteers. They don't get paid to serve on the Editorial Board. They do it because they care about the work they do and they care about the profession as a whole.So the next time you read an article that you find particularly intriguing or one that helps you on the job, please keep in mind the contributions of the Editorial Board. And if you happen to run into a board member at a meeting or conference, please extend your thanks. They have mine.

Vendor Relations: Tales from a Vendee

AbstractJulie Kitchen is a law librarian with many years experience of working for law firms large and small. In this article she provides an account of her personal experiences with vendors over the years and offers some suggestions for helping to improve the relationship.

Any Answers? Questions for Suppliers

AbstractBecause the focus of most of the themed articles in this issue of LIM is vendor relations from the point of view of the customer, it seemed sensible to allow the legal publishers to present their own views of relations with their customers to the readership, via a short survey carried out by BIALL's Legal Information Group.

Negotiation of Contracts. Planning for the Unknown with Boilerplate Clauses

AbstractFiona Fogden gave a very practical talk at the BIALL Conference 2010 in Brighton on contract negotiation with online vendors and it has been held over to this issue of LIM as it fits so well with our vendor relations theme.

Exploring job responsibilities and requirements of US textile and apparel sourcing personnel

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of the job responsibilities and requirements of textile and apparel (T&A) sourcing personnel from the employers' perspective, based on Kunz's behavioral theory of apparel firms and US Department of Labor's classification principles.Design/methodology/approach“Job wanted” texts published by Women's Wear Daily, a prominent daily trade newspaper in the US textile and apparel industry were collected. Content analysis was performed to examine three research question categories: daily duties of sourcing personnel, required skills for sourcing personnel, and relevant experiences sought for sourcing personnel.FindingsSourcing personnel are heavily involved in the firm's management of vendor relations, product development, production, and inter‐departmental collaborations. Desired sourcing personnel must be organized with multitasking abilities, knowledge of various computer applications, and exceptional communication skills. On‐the‐job experiences, industry knowledge, and bilingual abilities were highly sought for sourcing personnel with relatively little focus on formal education.Research limitations/implicationsThe study data source was limited to one US‐based trade publication from 2007 to 2008 and, thus, any extrapolation of the results must be done with a caution.Practical implicationsThe study results help employers define clear position descriptions, current and future sourcing personnel effectively develop career path plans, and educators provide timely and relevant sourcing curriculum. Ultimately, the study results may help students be better prepared for a sourcing job market.Originality/valueThe paper provides practical, in‐depth information of sourcing personnel's daily duties, required skills, and desired experiences from the employer's perspective, which has not been available in the literature to date.

Shopping in hospitality: situational constructions of customer–vendor relationships among shopping tourists at a bazaar on the German–Polish border

This article presents an analysis of a short customer–vendor dialogue between a German couple and a Polish vendor at a food bazaar on the Polish border with Germany. In this situation, interactants have to negotiate and construct framings of hospitality abroad, customer–vendor relations, as well as intercultural relations. It is assumed that individuals hold their own subjective concepts of these three variables. Using tools from ethnomethodology's membership categorization analysis, this paper will delineate aspects of this constructionist process in which participants make use of concurrent and alternative framings to steer the interaction to a positive end for themselves.

A Year in the Life

Academic Business Library Directors (ABLD), an association consisting of the directors of libraries at the preeminent business schools in the United States and Canada, comes together each year to discuss issues of interest. Prior to the meeting, members are asked to respond to a questionnaire on what has happened in their libraries in the previous year. This survey results in the Annual Review, a collaborative report on new initiatives, organizational changes, space and collection issues, business school events, and the budget situations in their libraries. Roye Werner compiled this year's Annual Review. This article contains the highlights from that report, which were also presented at the latest ABLD meeting, held at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, April 21-23, 2009. These trends will be of interest to many RUSQ readers because they relate to broad concerns that affect libraries of all types.--Editor When I switched from being a public business librarian to an academic one three years ago, I thought I should get my collegiate bearings by studying some relevant journals. I spent some time perusing, among other publications, the Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, which turned out to be right on target for that purpose--and it was there, through references in various articles and reports, that I learned about the Academic Business Library Directors (ABLD) association. ABLD is a small, specialized association, consisting of the directors of libraries at the preeminent business schools in the United States and Canada. The first meeting--which was inspired by discussions at the College and Universities Business Libraries Roundtable at the Special Libraries Association-was held in May 1987 at the Columbia University's Watson Library at the invitation of their business librarian Jane Winland. It began with less than a dozen members; today, membership is limited to fifty. As described in the charter (www.abld.org/charter.html), ABLE) provides a forum for directors of academic business libraries to discuss mutual concerns and share information. Interests include: managerial and administrative issues and trends; cooperative initiatives to preserve and provide access to unique collections in business; opportunities to influence development of new products and services for the academic business library market and to influence contract development (vendor relations); and opportunities for informal collaboration and networking. The organization has frequent contact and occasional meetings with sibling groups overseas, such as the European Business Schools Librarians' Group and the Asia Pacific Business School Librarians' Group, and recently has communicated with the newly formed Agrupacion de Directores de Centros de Informacion in Latin America. Lucky for me, I soon became a member, and have since made good use of the group's accumulated wisdom and collegial support through their e-mail list, statistics compilations, conference sessions, website, and professional contacts. Perhaps the most extensive and revealing form of information gathering takes place a few months before the annual meeting, when the Annual Review is compiled. An editor sends a questionnaire to all members, who are asked to describe and record their reflections on what has happened in their libraries in the past year. The results are combined and distributed, and the editor then tries to make sense of the collected responses--finding common themes, shared concerns, and standout events and ideas--to report on at the conference. This past year, I had the privilege of being that editor, and saw the process through, from distributing the questions to presenting the synthesis. For this latest Annual Review, we asked the members to report on the following: * new and ongoing initiatives * library organizational changes and new staff * physical space * collection and vendor issues * business school issues, organizational changes, and new initiatives * effects of the current economic situation * other Detailed and thoughtful reports came in from forty-three of our forty-nine members (an 88 percent response rate! …

Buyer–vendor relations for components: The extreme example of custom integrated circuits

This study uses the extreme example of custom integrated circuits (ICs) to investigate the generality of the findings of buyer–vendor relations research. There are some important parallels between the two situations, in the nature of safeguards for example. Yet, because the technological complexity and vendor size for custom ICs are greater than for the typical component, there are also some noteworthy differences. As examples, the technological complexity of a vendor's manufacturing process locks a buyer into the continued production of a given IC and, other things equal, the vendor's large size hampers it from playing an important role in development. Findings are based on a set of multiple case studies examining partnerships utilized by computer, telecommunications and auto firms.