View source for Fast-track the I.T Journey - How to move from Supplier to Partner by Alok Ranjan Tripathy

{{infobox1
|title=Fast-track  the I.T Journey - How to move from Supplier to Partner
|author=Alok Ranjan Tripathy
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=There's gold dust about how IT suppliers can better serve their buyers, but the book would be a better read had it been professionally copy edited and proofread.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=122
|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing
|date=October 2018
|isbn=978-1729621950
|cover=1729621953
|aznuk=1729621953
|aznus=1729621953
}}

So, what brought me to this book?  As the owner of a small business and a buyer of IT services I should be the senior partner in the relationship with my suppliers, but I've frequently found myself the junior partner and I've regularly been let down by them.  I needed to know where I could improve that relationship and, by looking at the situation from the supplier's point of view, what steps I needed to take.  Alok Tripathy's book looked as though it might provide help and possibly some of the answers as to how my suppliers could better help me.

And there is some gold dust in the book.  The ''7c Principle'', aimed here at IT supplier organisations, applies to most businesses.  Tripathy takes us through customer centricity, communication, creativity, commitment, capability, collaboration and continuity.  I found myself evaluating how my suppliers stood up to a review and where improvements are required - on both sides.  It was also a useful moment to consider how my business ranked as a supplier.  I found the author particularly strong on HR matters and ''Employees are assets - not costs and not machines'' should be on the wall of every directors' office.

Tripathy excels as a story teller and uses anecdotes, some better known than others - to illustrate the points he's making.  It's an ingenious way of holding the reader's attention.  Each section of the book is finished off with a piece headed ''My 3 Cents'', which gives a brief summary of the content of the preceding chapter and these are thought-provoking, highlighling, as they do, what Tripathy sees as the essential points.

I had two main problems with the book: firstly, Tripathy obviously knows what he's talking about but he's not always aware that his readers need information at a more basic level than he delivers.  I spent far too much time googling words which I didn't understand - such as''CICD'', ''DevOps'', ''Regtech'' and ''Fintech''.  Secondly the book lacks a professional and effective copy editing and proofreading.  In many places the language reads as though it's written by someone for whom English in not their native language: definite and indefinite articles are regularly omitted and words are misused.  By the time you get to the first line of the foreword the book has had three different titles.  It's confusing to read and made worse by the fact that many readers will not be familiar with some of the terminology used.  A glossary would have helped enormously.

Suppliers in the IT industry will find this book more useful than buyers, but as a buyer I found it enlightening to look at the advice from the reverse position and I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

I came to ''Fast-Track the I T Journey: How to Move From Supplier to Partner'' after reading [[Business Continuity For Dummies by Stuart Sterling, Brian Duddridge, Andrew Elliott, Michael Conway and Anna Payne]].

You can read more about Alok Ranjan Tripathy [[:Category:Alok Ranjan Tripathy|here]].

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