Mastering Vendor Management in Product Implementations: Why Your Team is Your Greatest Asset
- PMCi
- Sep 3
- 4 min read
Implementing a new product, whether software, hardware, or a hybrid solution, is an exciting opportunity for an organisation. It promises improved efficiency, smarter processes, and a competitive edge. But alongside this promise comes the risk of delays, cost overruns, or worse, a product that does not truly solve your business challenges. One of the most overlooked factors in successful product implementation is how you manage your vendor. While vendors bring expertise and technical capability, the ultimate success depends on your internal team’s structure, clarity, and engagement.
Many organisations assume that hiring a vendor or consultant guarantees a smooth rollout. In reality, without dedicated client-side roles, even the best vendor can falter. To get the most out of a product implementation, you need four critical client-side roles: a Project Manager, Business Analyst, Change Manager, and an Internal Implementer or Subject Matter Expert. Let us explore why each is indispensable.
1. The Project Manager: Orchestrating Success
The Project Manager (PM) is the glue that holds the implementation together. Their role extends far beyond scheduling tasks and sending reminders. They are responsible for translating business goals into actionable plans, tracking progress, and ensuring alignment between vendor deliverables and organisational objectives.
A skilled PM anticipates risks, coordinates across departments, and maintains transparent communication with all stakeholders. They also serve as the first point of escalation when vendor timelines slip or technical issues arise. In essence, the PM ensures that the project remains on scope, on time, and on budget.
Without a strong PM, you risk fragmented efforts. Teams may work in silos, vendor updates may be misunderstood, and crucial deadlines may be missed. Even with a top-tier vendor, the lack of centralised oversight can derail a project.
2. The Business Analyst: Translating Needs into Solutions
Imagine a scenario where your vendor delivers a technically flawless product that does not actually solve your business problem. It happens more often than you think. Enter the Business Analyst (BA), your bridge between the technical world and business reality.
The BA dives into your existing processes, captures requirements, identifies gaps, and ensures that what the vendor delivers aligns with your strategic objectives. They ask the tough questions: “Will this process scale?”, “Does this meet regulatory or compliance requirements?”, and “How will end users interact with this feature?”.
In addition, the BA validates vendor assumptions, reviews functional and technical specifications, and documents workflows to guide configuration or customisation. Essentially, they prevent costly misalignments by ensuring the product fits your organisation, not the vendor’s default template.
3. The Change Manager: Ensuring Adoption and Engagement
Even the best implemented system fails if people do not use it. This is where the Change Manager plays a pivotal role. They focus on the human side of implementation, preparing teams for new processes, managing resistance, and fostering adoption.
Change management involves clear communication, training, and support structures. It includes identifying champions within teams, monitoring adoption metrics, and iterating on user feedback. For example, a Change Manager may notice that one department struggles with a new workflow, coordinating targeted training or vendor support to resolve the issue before it escalates.
In complex implementations, neglecting change management can erode ROI. A technically perfect system is useless if employees circumvent it or fail to understand its benefits. By embedding change leadership in your team, you transform a deployment into a business transformation.
4. The Internal Implementer or SME: Your In-House Expertise
Vendors bring expertise in their product, but they cannot know your business as well as someone inside your organisation. An Internal Implementer or Subject Matter Expert (SME) fills this gap. They provide critical insights about internal processes, constraints, and cultural nuances that no external consultant can fully grasp.
This role involves hands-on work, configuring modules, validating test environments, and verifying that the system behaves as expected in real-world scenarios. SMEs ensure that the vendor’s implementation reflects operational realities. They also act as a knowledge repository for the broader team, supporting training and troubleshooting long after the vendor has concluded their work.
Without an Internal Implementer, you risk delays and misconfigurations, often leading to frustration, increased support tickets, and a perception that the new product is not fit for purpose.
Summary: Why Your Team Matters as Much as the Vendor
Product implementations succeed or fail based on how well the client leverages the vendor’s expertise while embedding their own governance, domain knowledge, and user-centric approach. Vendors are skilled at delivering technical solutions, but the client-side team ensures relevance, adoption, and operational impact.
Project Manager: Keeps timelines, scope, and budget in check
Business Analyst: Aligns product functionality with business needs
Change Manager: Drives adoption and mitigates resistance
Internal Implementer or SME: Provides in-house knowledge, validates configurations, and ensures the product works in practice
Having these roles clearly defined and empowered is not optional; it is a strategic imperative. When your internal team and vendor operate in sync, the result is a seamless, high-value implementation that meets both business objectives and user expectations.
Pro Tip: Even in smaller organisations, consider combining responsibilities judiciously, but never at the expense of clarity. One person can wear multiple hats, but the accountabilities for project oversight, requirements, change management, and operational expertise must remain distinct.
A strong, balanced client-side team is the difference between an “implemented” product and a transformed business.
The PMCi Perspective
From our experience, the difference between a smooth, successful implementation and a costly, drawn-out project often comes down to client engagement. When the business is disconnected from the vendor, the delivered product rarely meets real needs, resulting in frustration, wasted effort, and suboptimal outcomes. Early and consistent involvement on the client side ensures solutions not only function but deliver tangible value. Investing upfront in oversight and collaboration pays dividends, preventing costly rework, audits, and remediation that can easily triple the initial budget. Our advice: prioritise alignment and accountability from the start to secure a solution that truly works and drives impact.
