Blackberry News & Tips Newsletter
 
NEWSLETTERS
 

CIO.com updates, insights and advice on technology, management and your career.

 
 
 
LEADERSHIP
 
CIO Executive Programs
The Leader in Face-to-Face Education for Senior Executives

Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »

 
CIO Executive Council
A Peer-Advisory Service and Professional Association for CIOs

Turn Geeks into Leaders

June 17, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM U.S./ET (GMT-4)

Larry Bonfante, CIO of the U.S. Tennis Association, will discuss the skills and approaches that your rising IT leaders must learn to be effective in an executive capacity.

How to Handle Your New CEO: Managing Turnover at the Top

June 18, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)

Turbulent times have increased turnover at the top. Find out what Council CIOs have done to "break in" new CEOs—build relationships, set expectations, educate on the role of IT.

Mid-Market CIO Panel: Tips and Techniques for Improving Vendor Relationships

July 15, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)

We'll highlight relationship priorities and best practices identified in a Council study, and we'll interact with a CIO panel on the approaches they've used to improve strategic vendor partnerships.

Executive Competencies Assessment Tool

Assess Your Business Leadership Skills with the Council's new benchmarking tool. Rate yourself in change leadership, strategy, customer focus and more.

More / Register »

Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »



 
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 
SUBSCRIBE TO CIO
 
Are you involved in setting the direction for your company's IT budget or strategy?

Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!

 
 

CIO Partnerships - Something Ventured, Something Gained

Roger Sippl is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and executive, well known as a founder of CRM software company Vantive ...

 

April 15, 2004CIO

Roger Sippl is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and executive, well known as a founder of CRM software company Vantive and database pioneer Informix. But that was then; now venture capitalists want to know the prospects of Sippl’s latest startup, a Web services company called Above All Software. To find out, VC group J.P. Morgan Partners turned to its Technology Council, a group of 20-plus CIOs and CTOs who gathered in Las Vegas last November.

What started as a product pitch turned into a reality check. The Technology Council members weren’t shy about letting Sippl know he is ahead of their Web services adoption curve. "We’re still dipping our toes in the water," says Enzo Micali, CTO of 1-800-Flowers.com, who was one of the few IT execs present who agreed to give the technology a try.

Tough love, perhaps, but this is the kind of insight from IT leaders that startup companies and their venture capitalist backers crave. Stung by the failure of so many startups after the technology bubble burst, these days VC firms like J.P. Morgan

Partners are relying on CIO advisory groups. The Technology Council guides J.P. Morgan Partners (JPMP) on technology and provides straight talk on whether a portfolio company is selling goods that IT execs want to buy.

In exchange for their wisdom, CIOs get a first peek at new technologies and, if they choose, a chance to work with a startup and shape the future features of its product. "It’s almost like having your own R&D arm," says Lars Rabbe, CIO of Yahoo. "You get all these startup companies so you don’t have to do it yourself."

Besides the insight into new technologies, CIOs who participate in VC-sponsored councils say the chance to connect with their peers is a huge benefit. A CIO thinking of participating in such groups must be careful to avoid conflicts of interest, however, and should make sure that the VC firm knows the CIO’s needs well enough so that it doesn’t waste his time on irrelevant technologies.

How CIO Councils Work

The specifics of VC-CIO relationships vary quite a bit. There are about 700 venture capital outfits in the United States, ranging from firms that seed-fund new ventures to later-stage investors willing to gamble a lot of money on a company with a product. Though the National Venture Capital Association and other organizations that track the industry can’t pinpoint the number of VC-organized CIO councils, dozens of firms are quietly using the groups as a crucial part of their investment strategy.

 
 
Loading...
 
WHITE PAPERS

The Future of Financial Reporting

Finance and accounting executives must understand, adapt to, and manage the costs associated with changes: and doing so opens an opportunity to leverage this shift to better position their companies in the eyes of the investment community.
 

Offset Expenditures with Old Switches

Learn how to unleash the hidden cash in your used equipment.
 

Managing an Offshore Development Center

Since the early 1990's companies have been searching for places in the world where they can tap into reduced development costs and a better business environment.
 

Cost Effective Data Loss Prevention

Learn how Data Loss Prevention technologies can in fact be deployed in a cost effective manner.
 

Data Loss Prevention and Enterprise Rights Management

Enterprise Management Associates highlights the complementary values of Data Loss Prevention and Enterprise Rights Management as a strategic approach to information risk control.
 

Investing in Business Analytics Technology

Find the answers to your questions about business anyalytics initiatives.
 

WEBCASTS

IT Consolidation Made Easy

The Primary IT Initiative for Reducing Costs
 

Webcast with Dan Vesset: Investing in Business Analytics Technology

What exactly is business analytics and why should you care? Dan Vesset of IDC and Gaurav Verma of SAS answer this a...
 

Capitalize on Your SAP Content

After 18 years of partnership and over 3,000 successful customer deployments, Open Text has become SAP's premier pa...
 

Enterprise Cloud Computing: Ready for Primetime?

The progression toward enterprise cloud computing is happening today, as industry leaders deploy technologies that ...
 

Preparing Your Business Services for the Future

Would you trust your network monitoring tools enough to know when something is truly halting a business service? Wh...
 

Enterprise System Management Challenges in Big Organizations with Eli Almog

In this Podcast with Eli Almog, Corporate Architect in BMC's CTO Office, discusses how IT managers can know when it...
 

Resource Alerts

Get instant email notifications by topic when white papers, webcasts, and case studies are added to our library.

 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

Offshoring Risks - How Will You Stay in Control?

Accenture IT Consulting: Enabling high performance. More...

Top Five CIO Challenges

Insight makes it easy to spend your Microsoft subsidy check.

Five minute business analytics assessment. Immediate results.

Dangerous Collaboration Practices: 5 Ways IT Can Minimize Risk

Accenture: Outsourcing for uncertain times. Click to learn more.

The Case for Investing in Business Analytics Technology. Read white paper.

Live Webinar: Applying Business Analytics. Click here to learn more

Seven Ways ITIL Can Help You in an Economic Downturn

Developing A Dynamic, Real-Time IT Infrastructure

Maximizing the Business Value of the PC Infrastructure

Communications and Collaboration Needs at Business Organizations

Using Open Source to Deploy Web Applications

Cloud Computing: Read about VMware's compelling vision & set of products

Enterprise PBX Buyer's Guide

Secondary Market Primer: Your Network at Half Price

How Interactive Viewer Reduces the Effort to Meet Visualization Requirements

Top-line Performance that's Bottom-line Efficient

White Paper: 8 Key Ingredients to Building an Internal Cloud

Read about virtualization and consolidation effort best practices

Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure

The Global Marketplace Today: Strategies for Tough Times

Top 10 Business and IT Drivers for the Wealth Management Sector

5 Steps to Automating Accounts Payable

Introducing the new HP ProLiant G6 server family

Accenture: Outsourcing for Competitive Advantage. More...

Better spam protection with Postini for just $1/user/mo

Introducing the new HP ProLiant G6 server family

infoBOOM! - The Mid-Sized Company CIO's Exclusive Community

Accenture IT Consulting: Logical meets technological. More . . .

The Fraudster Economy Model: Operating a Business in the Underground

Trade in your old laser printer and get up to $1000 back!

Taking the Service Desk to the Next Level

Revolutionizing Enterprise Application Deployment

Why Data Loss is Increasing--and What You Can Do About It

Data Loss Prevention: A Better Way to Approach Security

Learn how to managing client systems in the enterprise.

Build a High-Performance Open Web Platform

Mid-Sized Company CIO Community: infoBOOM!

Enterprise PBX Comparison Guide

Getting Value from Outdated Networking Equipment

Losing Ground: 2009 TMT Global Security Survey

Stop Application Fraud at the Source with Device Reputation

Learn about the VMware vSphere (TM) & Intel (R) Xeon (R) Processor 5500 Series

Learn how a virtualized enterprise can help your company reduce costs

Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More?

Learn how to save 30% through project & portfolio management.

How Open Source is Changing the Face of Enterprise Software

8 Key Ingredients to Building an Internal Cloud