Assessing The Effect of Vendor Performance Management On Service Delivery and Network Uptime in The Telecom Industry: A Conceptual Review

The telecommunications sector relies heavily on a vast network of third-party providers to maintain its critical infrastructure, network operations and provide end-to-end service quality. The ability to effectively manage vendor relations is now a key driver of the operational resilience of telecom/ISP operators as networks become more complex, as 5G technology is deployed, fibre is expanded and as cloud-native technologies are adopted. This paper gives a conceptual analysis of vendor performance management (VPM) and its impact on service delivery and network uptime in the telecom industry. The review also consolidates the literature on the subject and applies the findings to the examination of VPM practices and their impact on contractual compliance, service level agreement (SLA) adherence and network availability metrics, leveraging theory from Principal-Agent Theory, Balanced Scorecard and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) vendor governance models. The paper outlines various key dimensions of VPM including KPI framework design, governance of contracts, relationship with suppliers, and performance feedback system and critically discusses their theoretical foundations and practical implications in a telecom environment. Results indicate that operators that have established well-developed vendor governance frameworks consistently achieve better results with respect to network uptime and service continuity, but there are still many unclear measurement standards and loose vendor governance structures across the field. The review also points out a mismatch with respect to the models of vendor governance and how they are implemented in the telecom operational context. Guidance is provided on how to create outcome-focused VPM frameworks that are integrated. This paper is a part of the body of knowledge on supply chain governance, IT service management and telecommunications operations management.