The Open Group Supplier Council
By Walter Stahlecker, June 23rd 2002; walter_stahlecker@hp.com
Introduction
Through the existence of The Open Group there was a Supplier Council to provide a venue for supplier-type members to discuss their specific interests and to coordinate their input to The Open Group's functions. There is a wide range of supplier-type members of The Open Group and thus there should always be partners in creating common ground to grow the market.
This paper describes several areas where the Supplier Council can create value for its members and it proposes a mode of operation to conduct its business.
Creating value
- The Open Group offers a distinct advantage in agreeing common ground via its requirements process.
A major aspect is the scenario-method to create very credible requirements, with definitions directly traceable to business rationales and verified by a range of customers. This way requirements become very useful, especially in comparison with informal customer visits. And they are valuable beyond statistical market research because their coherence can lead all the way to definitions of use cases. It is normally very costly to get such detailed and reasoned requirements, while cooperation in The Open Group provides members with free access.
Another aspect is the partnership between customers and suppliers in The Open Group. This provides a venue for mutually clarifying and advising during the development of requirements and the subsequent creation of standards or certification in response. Such responses will turn a requirement into a solution and thus grow the market, which means that answering requirements will be a major element in creating value for supplier-type members of The Open Group.
- Suppliers always have a differentiated strategy with respect to standards and certification.
While there always was strong interest in standards for areas of non-differentiation, there is a growing share of strategies which also employ standards and certification in areas of differentiation. The range of motivations around standards is wide and delegates of their companies to The Open Group are likely to find others with similar issues in bringing topics into The Open Group or in bringing these to work inside their companies.
Meeting as a Supplier Council can create value for delegates by sharing best practices. Examples would be re-use of presentations and white papers, and experiences in taking Open Group requirements into internal strategic discussions. Also the partnership with customers in The Open Group provides opportunities to set up direct interactions between developers of scenarios and a those driving strategies in a delegate's company. This way participation in The Open Group allows delegates to create more value than delivering reports.
- Over the past years supplier-type membership in The Open Group has widened considerably beyond large system vendors. Both the number of smaller companies and the range of interests above the operating system platform has grown.
With this new situation the Supplier Council provides increased impact to all supplier-type members. Agreements from within this Council will influence work programs, discussions of the Customer Council or the Board of Directors. It is important that there is an inclusive and balanced representation of supplier-type members.
The Supplier Council also represents an excellent way to increase an individual delegate's impact on all of The Open Group. It is a venue to sound out the best way to get new ideas off the ground and to build nuclei of new projects.
Mode of operation for the Supplier Council (proposed)
Re-constitution of the Supplier Council
This Council has not met for about one year and it will now meet in July in Boston. All supplier-type members will be asked to name a delegate to ensure that the Supplier Council will be inclusive, especially at re-constitution.
After a brief introduction, the delegates are asked to introduce themselves, their company and state their expectations from a Supplier Council. Then the top values created by the Supplier Council are discussed and draft definitions created. Finally the structure to represent the Supplier Council will be discussed and drafted.
On this basis the Supplier Council can be constituted, with the move from drafts to final definitions as its first step. It is expected that a number of delegates agree to carry the drafts forward in towards agreement, mostly through email and teleconferences.
Operative Supplier Council
Once the drafts for values and structure are agreed and any positions filled, items with highest value will be progressed in cooperation with the Customer Council and The Open Group staff.
Possible work items:
- Responses to requirements. This work should be carried, jointly by customer and supplier members, into a phase of dialogs with decision makers in the respective companies. In a way the Supplier Council takes on a role of "requirements response council".
- Sharing best practices and tools to channel information back into the respective companies. This could include re-use of (sanitized) presentations, tools, etc. Especially where there are shared expectations among suppliers that the market can grow through a particular standard or certification, sharing of best practices can be very effective to realize a growing market.
- Developing proposals or offers to entities within The Open Group in relation to new or existing tasks.
Possible functions within the Supplier Council:
- Chair
- Vice chair (or regional Vice Chairs?)
- Requirements Liaison (per topic?)