By Dale Vile

 

The IT professional community is made up of everyone from CIOs, through department heads and project managers, to IT practitioners such as architects, developers and operations staff. The range of skills and disciplines is broad and varied, reflecting the complexity of the modern IT landscape. All of these professionals play a role in IT systems delivery, yet so much vendor marketing and sales activity nowadays is focussed purely on the CIO. Whether this is appropriate is an interesting question. Does the CIO really drive all of the action or are other IT professionals involved too? Understanding the reality in this area is important if IT vendors and customers are to achieve proper alignment with regard to IT investment and procurement activity.

 

KEY FINDINGS

 

CIOs are not superheroes, they have to delegate like any other manager
Those in senior IT management positions have limited bandwidth, and in a well run IT department, much of the day to day business is taken care of by the staff that work within it. This includes the bulk of the activity associated with IT product and service evaluation and selection.

 

Decision making processes and influences vary by organisation size
The scale and complexity of larger organisations dictates a higher degree of delegation. Senior IT management are much less likely to be driving procurement activity directly in enterprises than they are in a small business environment. The most frequently occurring enterprise procurement approach involves evaluation and recommendation by technical and project teams with subsequent senior management sign-off. The next most frequent approach is collaborative, with an executive sponsor working together with technical teams to drive decisions collectively. Company standards also play a more significant role in the enterprise space compared to small business.

 

IT vendors must maintain a balanced approach to engaging with customers
Given the above, it is important that IT vendors engage with their customers and prospects in a balanced manner. Too much emphasis on C level decision makers can create the perception by senior management of being “pestered” by sales people, with technical and project teams simultaneously feeling alienated or bypassed. Vendors must also be aware of the relationship between IT and the business, which frequently revolves around IT/business liaison representatives and steering committees that operate at a middle management or practitioner level. In many cases, there may even be a requirement for business management to sign-off significant IT investments.

 

Ensuring openness with vendors will benefit customers
Wherever possible, customers should be clear with suppliers and potential suppliers on exactly how decisions are made, both in general terms and in the context of specific requirements. Armed with that understanding, suppliers are much more likely to engage in a balanced, productive and harmonious manner, which is in everyone’s interests.