Multiple vendors typical: Salesforce, AppExchange ISVs, Mulesoft, Heroku, AWS, consulting firms.
Practices:
1. Track vendor health.
- Financial stability.
- Roadmap alignment.
- Support quality.
- Customer references.
2. Negotiate contracts.
- Multi-year for discount; lock-in trade-off.
- Bundle deals where possible.
- Renewal date awareness; don't auto-renew without review.
3. Manage SLAs.
- Each vendor's SLA — uptime, response, resolution.
- Track against actual.
- Escalate on breaches.
4. Avoid lock-in.
- Open APIs over proprietary.
- Avoid deep customisation of vendor packages — hard to switch.
- Plan exit costs.
5. Centralise vendor management.
- One person / team coordinates across vendors.
- Avoids each project starting from scratch.
6. Annual reviews.
- Each vendor reviewed: still aligned? Still healthy?
- Replace under-performing vendors.
Architect role: provide technical input to vendor decisions. Recognise red flags before contract signing.