TALKING
business
‘‘
Any supplier needs to understand the
individual challenges facing its customers
and today they face the toughest over. IT
suppliers have been spoiled over the years
and companies that have had best-in-class
products have been able to call the shots,
often leading to dysfunctional buyer/seller
relationships. Now, we need to band together
with customers and build stronger links.
Communications
More than ever we need to listen as well as
talk. A frequent complaint is that IT firms
only want to sell and not to understand the
specific needs of customers, their operations,
their sector or their local culture. This is the
time to invest in getting closer to customers.
Pricing
The crashing revenues that many
companies are seeing mean that the
industry needs to move to more creative
pricing plans. The old enterprise software
model of money upfront followed by an
annual tax is no longer fit for purpose.
Subscription-style tariffs mean customers
only pay for what they use and means they
can try new services and approaches at
very low cost. Discounted and free services
should also be applied where appropriate.
Support
Service level agreements are a necessary
model to provide value, but they are often
too rigorous. Companies need to be able to
flex their terms in times such as these and
go the extra mile to ensure customers have
what they need, whether that’s by extending
support hours or extending terms.
Cloud
The industry needs to press home the
message that cloud platforms can be highly
effective near-term and long-term responses
to standing up services. The companies least
able to manoeuvre today are those that
have lots of on-premises legacy equipment.
Today, we’re finding out the real advantages
of having capacity on demand, in not being
locked into suppliers or platforms, in being
able to dial resources down as well as up,
of trying new things fast – and even seeing
them fail without high penalties.
“
WE NEED TO BAND
TOGETHER WITH
CUSTOMERS AND
BUILD STRONGER
LINKS.
All of the above are ways to start thinking
about how we can help but our theme must
be flexibility. That word is part of the lexicon
of the industry: you hear it everywhere,
together with ‘agility’ and ‘elasticity’.
Attend any technology conference and you
will be calling ‘house!’ on your buzzword
bingo scorecard before the end of the
opening keynote. But if IT vendors can lose
their bad habits and show that willingness
to change and flex in favour of customers,
they will be in the best position to succeed
when our economies bounce back. By being
authentic, empathetic, human and gentle,
we all win. •
32 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com