5. Use. Using the information is the whole point of the scorecard. "What you do with the results is what helps determine if a vendor scorecard is successful," Maurer says. "If you're a service recipient and the vendor is supposed to be meeting service levels and they don't, how do you remedy that? How do you make it better and improve processes?"

Start by telling suppliers the criteria by which you are measuring them. "It's almost like an employee performance review," Yelvington says. "We get an average of what their grade is for the time period, and that's what we show suppliers during meetings with them."

Invite vendors to work with you on compiling and evaluating the information. If they value the relationship, they'll see the scorecard as a collaborative effort. If they don't, you'll notice.

"The point," says Healey, "is to have a scorecard available so that you can make decisions quickly."

Dunn is a freelance writer in Belmont, Mass. Contact her at cdunn@savoirmedia.com.