EDUCAUSE | Vendor Partnerships

Vendors and Contracts: The Sales Webinar

rowe — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:33:44 -0500

Just sat through another painful sales webinar... Why is looking at web-based software in a sales review so very, very painful? It is like an unfamiliar roller-coaster ride. Someone else is at the controls in a remote place. They know where they want to go, but you don't know the path. So the viewer is left to sit and watch as someone unknown points and clicks - and you never know when they are going to point and click and jump to something else. You get focused on something on the screen, and you suddenly startled to someplace else. All the while the vendor-speaker is coming across the speaker phone, and if they've gone to a cell phone, Skype or VOIP, the connection may echo or cut out. We strain to listen to the vendor talk about the product, trying to get important details, and the vendor is talking about the product in a casual, unscripted way that just is intended to "walk you through" something that requires your attention. At the end, I'm left with a series of disjointed perceptions about the product. Many times my functional community is left with a bad product view, when I really think it was the bad webinar. Given the costs of travel, the webinar is a better choice than in-person product presentations. What could be done to make this experience better?

Never schedule a webinar after lunch. Let's face it - this isn't the most engaging activity. Add on a tired group, and the webinar is doomed.
Get a high-quality speaker phone in the room, and make sure there's no sound interference from air-handling systems or adjoining spaces. Make sure you can hear from all chair locations.
Double-check the room temp for the crowd attending. A warm room guarantees a sleepy audience.
Send who/job title info about the audience to the vendor in advance to avoid wasting that time at the start of the webinar.

Vendors:

Start with a road-map of the product, some sort of overview of the entire menu or all the modules.
Follow a logical order through the product, maybe an order related to the workflow. Avoid getting too casual in the walk-through.
The speaker should follow basic presentation skills for the navigation: tell us where you are going first, and why, then go there, then tell us why we are there. So the presentation may go something like: "See this button? When you click on this, all your active records will display. I'm going to click on this now (then click). (After successful display) This display shows all the active records." It takes the "startle-effect" out of watching point-and-click navigation.
The speaker should stop frequently and ask for questions, and it is helpful if questions are repeated before answering.
Summarize the presentation at the end - bring this to a positive closure and provide a mechanism for follow-up questions.

Podcast: Leading Ahead of the Curves

gbayne — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:37:29 -0500

In this hour-long podcast we feature the closing keynote address from the EDUCAUSE 2008 Midwest Regional Conference. The speech was delivered by Brad Wheeler, Vice President for IT, CIO, and Professor at Indiana University and is entitled, "Leading Ahead of the Curves". A PowerPoint Presentation is also available.

Three curves—technical possibility, social desirability, and economic feasibility over time—describe the forces that shape college and university IT challenges. The consumerization of technology, insourcing and outsourcing, edge or leveraged services on campus, and multi-institutional community source are timely opportunities for IT leaders who can wisely discern these curves.

Podcast: Outsourcing and Partnering for Student Collaborative Services - An Interview with O'Neal Smitherman

gbayne — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:47:48 -0500

In this 14 minute podcast, we feature an interview with O'Neal Smitherman, Vice President for Information Technology at Ball State University, from the 2007 Seminars On Academic Computing conference. Ball State University has partnered with Microsoft to bring a number of services and upgrades to their computing services. Mr. Smitherman discusses how Ball State approached this succesful partnership, some of the challenges a university faces in partnering with a vendor, and how to assess if a partnership is right for your institution.

O'Neal Smitherman was part of a collaborative session at the 2007 Seminars On Academic Computing entitled, "Outsourcing for Student Collaborative Services".

EDUCAUSE2006 Podcast: Application Service Providers

Carie417 — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 17:51:00 -0600

In this 35-minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, we'll hear from Theresa Roe in a session entitled Application Service Providers and Outsourcing: Protecting Your Assets. Roe will discuss how effective vendor management, contract language interpretation, contract performance tracking, and vendor negotiation skills are valued in a successful outsourcing environment.

ID Management Services Program: Discount Vendor Pricing Offered

cluckett — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:24:50 -0500

In order to help campuses in their cybersecurity efforts, EDUCAUSE has made arrangements with an expanded number of vendors to offer special discounts to EDUCAUSE member institutions that subscribe to the Identity Management Services Program.