In Working with It - Part 1, I talked about the various ways that IT and Purchasing interact. Part 2 shares hints to help the relationship stay smooth.
IT employees have great demands made on their time. Buyers should ask for reports and needed information as far in advance as possible (while also giving the IT rep a deadline). IT folks are forced to prioritize and reprioritize their tasks constantly. If the company's customer web interface goes down, you can believe that getting it up and running again will definitely push your spend report request on last year's copy paper consumption off the top of the IT to-do list.
Another good tactic is to have an idea in mind of what you want when you approach them for help. IT types are very smart and analytical; they like charts, graphs, and data with which to work. If you need specific information on a report, give them a mock version you made in Excel first so they know what you want and can visualize it.
Don't do things to make IT reps lives more difficult such as asking a vendor to e-mail a picture of every item in their catalog which then freezes up the department's e-mail system because of the file size
Combine these hints with your own professional courtesy and Purchasing and IT will get along just fine.
Please share any ideas you have used to foster a productive and happy relationship between Sourcing and IT.
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