Vendors and Contracts: Making Connections

One of the challenges of IT leadership is working with vendors and the associated contracts, agreements and licenses common to the operation of an IT department.  I'm trying to figure out how and when I learned to handle this part of my operation.  I'd like to give my staff the benefit of attending classes and professional development that would improve their skills in this area (maybe an Executive MBA in IS Leadership that our university offers emba.oakland.edu).  I'm seeking options that offer opportunities to develop skills in handling vendor relationships.  I thought an occasional blog posting on this topic would help explore the nature of the environment and the skills required of IT leaders.

Making Connections

A challenge for vendors is making the connection with the decision-maker who can confirm a potential sale.  A challenge for IT leaders is selecting the right products for purchase in their departments, which requires a lot of attention to the technology market.  These purchases must align with university directions, purchasing procedures and a general expectation for ethical conduct.

When I moved into a leadership role, it was amazing to me how fast the word spread through the vendor community.  Within a short period of time, I was flooded with telephone calls, more calls than I could ever hope to return.  Vendors would leave voice messages and my voice mail was always full.  Vendor messages would display more and more frustration at my lack of response.  At one point a vendor did get through to me, and expressed his anger and frustration.  I was frustrated in return:  "Did I ever ASK you to contact ME?"

At one point I kept a ticker of how many vendor calls I received, and when it was over 125 in one week, I realized I couldn’t manage connecting this way.  I changed my voice-mail message to say that "Vendors should contact the purchasing department; I do not return unsolicited vendor calls."  I have about 300 e-mail filters which allow me to sort the advertisements into "review" and "trash"; I only look at e-mail ads for products that I am currently following.  Fortunately my university has a "no solicitation" policy which supports my actions, and vendors are always welcome to contact our purchasing department. 

Over time, vendors have tried a variety of sales tactics that are sometimes irritating and sometimes entertaining.  Some of my favorite connection opening lines follow, now often arriving by email but sometimes by phone message (when they ignore my voice-mail message):

• "I want to follow-up on the material you asked for at our booth at the last conference."  Interesting, when I didn't stop at the booth and have no interest in the product.  Sometimes the conference is one I didn't even attend.
• "I'm taking over the account for Sam, and Sam left notes about the project he was working on for you."  I wasn’t working with Sam on anything.
• "I'd like to get your opinion on this product."  I do understand that you don't really want my opinion; you want to see if I want to buy.
• "I've already shown this to your Registrar and he really wants this product." Oh, great, so you are trying to circumvent our publicly mandated bid purchase process!
• "I saw the post on the CIO list, and I know that we should contact you by list rules, but I have such a good solution for you that I thought you'd really like to know about it."  Geez!   This is the biggest source of complaints I receive from CIOs on the list.

So how does a vendor make a successful connection with me?

• I go to conferences with strong vendor floors with a list of vendors that I want to visit.  The national Educause conference is a favorite.  Having quality staff at a strong vendor display is important.  I need to interact with vendor representatives who can answer technical questions and sales questions.  I'm clear about our bid purchasing process.
• When I contact a vendor to request follow-up or product materials, or when I ask for follow-up materials at the conference, I'd like those materials within the next 6 weeks.  I especially like it when you can immediately point me to the relevant materials on the vendor web site.
• When I need to find the right person to talk to, the vendor should have a process that enables me to find the right sales contact.  A failure I experienced with a major hardware vendor:  I tried the web site, got a contact number, called and was referred around for over 8 weeks.  Never got to a person who could give me a sales demo or tell me how to buy the product.
• Please don't offer me tickets to any sporting event or attendance at any golf-outing!  As an employee of a public university, I avoid these vendors unless I absolutely have to talk to them, and then only with my purchasing director present.

My role as a CIO requires that I learn how to make good connections with vendors.  We've created an internal document that provides our staff guidelines on making connections.  As I mentor staff, I ask questions that pay attention to those four bullets:  Did you go to the vendor floor?  What products were exciting?  Is the vendor responsive to your requests for materials?  Can you easily contact people who can get us information?  Are you spending time with vendors where no sale is possible? (why?)  This seems to be helpful in their understanding of making vendor connections.