CIO Executive Council —

Chris Kohl, VP and CIO, Vertex

We were working with a reseller that was missing the "value add" in the "value-added reseller" label. They focused the relationship on delivery of products when we needed the relationship to be a strategic one. I told them that the first step to right this relationship was that I needed to see their representatives more than just once in a great while. Beyond that, I needed to know that they understood our needs and would seek to add value on a continual basis.

The vendor responded very well, flying people out to make a personal connection. We now hold a regular meeting every six months to discuss our objectives. Vendors want to sell things; you want what you have to work as long as possible. An open, two-way forum is established with agendas that are agreed to ahead of time, allowing a chance to think, instead of just react. We've maintained our account rep despite several territory changes. I have proof in our daily interaction that the vendor is now a full partner.

Susan Faulkner, Director of IS and Technology, Bluewave Energy

For years we used a specialized application for petroleum distribution from a small software company. It was a good product, but eventually it became clear that the vendor's lack of rigorous change control was creating problems with upgrades. A major upgrade was so bug-ridden that it caused significant troubles in our own processes. We worked with this vendor for a year and couldn't come up with an adequate solution, so we decided to issue an RFP and began to talk with competitors.

As the RFP process progressed, we saw some good alternatives and were prepared to move on. Although we invited our original vendor to participate, we felt it was highly unlikely that we would be keeping them. However, they came back to us with significant improvements to their quality assurance and release management processes. Seeing that, we decided to put in a newer version of their software and suspend negotiations with the other vendors.

It was a complete turnaround that I really think would not have happened if we hadn't been ready to leave them behind.

Phil Armstrong, Executive VP and CIO, Symcor

Shortly after starting at Symcor, I discovered that the relationship with one of our most important vendors was in a terrible state. The local sales rep for some reason had come to believe that we were going to be displacing them and had stopped returning our calls. This couldn't have been further from the truth—in fact, we saw this platform as a big engine to fuel growth.

I reached out to the vendor's CIO, saying, "I'm new, why don't you come and meet with us and get to know us and our needs." This opened up a line of communication for me to share our frustrations and for the vendor to share theirs. My relationship with the CIO has yielded core changes in the way the relationship is managed, including a task force that meets weekly instead of monthly to talk about the process of installing new, enhanced software. We renegotiated the contract to tie payments to dates and deliverables, which does a better job of acknowledging our growth plan and meeting our needs for expansion. On the other side, we've also agreed to be absolutely transparent with the vendor about our needs and goals, including sharing testing criteria for the new software.

There had been a lot of mistrust on both sides, meaning we were missing out on an opportunity to better use their product and they were missing out on a bigger sale. So, via my counterpart CIO, we brought them inside the tent, and it paid off.

Kohl, Faulkner and Armstrong are each members of the CIO Executive Council, a global peer advisory service and professional association of more than 500 CIOs, founded by CIO magazine's publisher. To learn more visit council.cio.com.