There's expert advice out there on how to pick the best vendor partner and how to get a good solid relationship going. But there's little on how to disengage, or divorce, your enterprise from a vendor when a relationship goes sour and can't be salvaged. The goal is to avoid getting hit with a lawsuit over severing the agreement or having an unhappy consultant do damage before his access is cut off. The latter was a hard-learned lesson for one biotech firm, which gave its consulting service provider a heads up the good times were over. The consultant, unfortunately, did some major damage in retribution.

The first step in managing this process is getting a good replacement in the wings before doing anything or relaying any news to the vendor you want to dump. Then review the termination clause in the agreement to avoid legal liability. Also, make sure that the vendor doesn't have anything valuable or critical you need or expect back from them.

For more on making a smooth partnership break:
- read this article at InfoWorld