CIOs Want Partners, Not Products, From Solution Providers

If solution providers want to get in the door with a customer, leave the technology outside, according to a panel of CIOs at XChange Solution Provider 2009 in New Orleans.

VARs are more likely to gain an end user's attention if they talk about business improvements, the CIOs told the crowd of solution providers.

"Partners should bring something to the table. It should be more than me writing you a check," said Ross Bagley, CIO at Consolidated Systems, a Columbia, S.C.-based manufacturer of metal products. "When you first talk to me, prove to me how you will improve my process over what I'm doing. Show me something you've done in the past. Tell me how you will help my bottom line or help my project because you've done it in three other companies."

Bagley added that his relationships with VARs developed because they were honest and provided a value beyond the lowest price on products.

Steve Kraus, CIO of Olan Mills, a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based family portrait photographer, said he often deals with small VARs, even though their prices may be higher than bigger companies, if they seek to know his business.

"[Big companies] don't think like us. We're kind of a scrambler. We look for people who are smart," Kraus said. "I'd rather see someone bring expertise to the table."

He also said solution providers need to have the right people talking to customers, which doesn't always happen. "I don't want to hear from the vice president of sales. We want to see the guy who developed the system," Kraus said.

Ronald Caruana, director of administrative systems at Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, Fla., said solution providers also shouldn't focus so much on selling a specific vendor.

"We could care less. We just happened to have an EMC SAN," he said. "A lot of the folks come into higher education with the new bells and whistles. But really for my purposes, our driver [in storage] isn't capacity. Seven terabytes will last us a long time."

Solution providers can be successful if they show customers how to get a good return or help them become more efficient, said Tom Dunnigan, CIO of South Carolina Student Loan, a nonprofit education lender based in Columbia, S.C.

"I came in April 2007 and I spent just as much on IT but I have shrunk my staff. I find outsourcing projects to be effective and it allows me to play with my budget a little better," he said.

The CIOs also said their IT budgets for 2009 haven't been cut, at least not yet, and Bagley noted that his IT budget is actually gone up. "It's a great time to buy," he said.

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