Calling the shots

RECENTLY, I MODERATED a panel discussion in Silicon Valley about the IT decision-making process from the CTO/CIO perspective. The audience consisted primarily of sales and business development people, so a lot of the discussion centered on the way IT decisions are made by individuals in organizations. Being on the receiving end of dozens of sales pitches and proposals every week, I was interested to hear how the other CTOs (and one CIO) on the panel view the process.

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First of all, the panel illustrated the continuing evolution of the CTO and CIO positions within organizations. When I asked the panelists who holds the checkbook at their companies, the answers varied. In some cases, the CTO holds the checkbook and provides all the technical leadership within the company, both internal and external. The most interesting response came from CTO Dave Moellenhoff of Salesforce.com. He stated very clearly that he did not want to hold the checkbook because he wasn't interested in all the financial responsibilities that came along with it.

Still, due to his position at Salesforce.com, Moellenhoff exerts great influence on technology choices and expenditures. In these cases, I think the CTO/CIO relationship is somewhat like a marriage partnership in which one spouse holds the checkbook, but the other exerts relatively equal influence on the decision-making process. In my attempt to illustrate a distinction between CTOs and CIOs, I noted that CIOs typically face inward, whereas CTOs face outward, meeting with customers to help define and sell the CTO's company's products.

As a counterpoint, Rhonda Hocker of BEA noted that as CIO she is involved in 30 percent to 40 percent of her company's sales engagements, often speaking to fellow CIOs about her use of BEA's products within her own organization to help close the sale. Such roles can be quite similar in different organizations, but it seems to me that the CTO's focus on building a company's products and services (especially in technology companies) is the key difference.

It's apparent that vendors need to more clearly explain their value propositions. I picked up a tip from Glenn Ricart, CTO of CenterBeam (and a member of InfoWorld's CTO Advisory Council), on how to deal with sales "cold calls" and still keeping yourself open to new companies. It's very simple: When a salesperson calls and asks for a few minutes of your time, say, "I get a dozen calls a day from people just like you. Tell me why I should listen to what you have to say." Glenn noted that his statement is often greeted with dead silence, and that's the end of the call. If the sales person on the other end delivers a compelling reason to listen to the product or service pitch, Glenn listens to it. This is my new strategy.

Not surprisingly, open-source solutions influence decision-making and shut out potential vendors altogether. Moellenhoff, for example, runs a uniquely high-performance online sales force automation suite and needs to know that every component is delivering at the highest level. To that end, he keeps a close eye on various open-source projects to see if they can be used for his needs. Being able to dig in and look at the code is important to many CTOs, myself included. Although it's counterintuitive to the typical vendor mind-set, many CTOs perceive that support for certain open-source solutions is better because there are no ties to a vendor.

I also learned that certain sales pitches are simply failing. If you're selling bandwidth, co-location space or data warehousing solutions, these CTO/CIO panelists are not interested. And if you call them anyway, be prepared to tell them why they should listen to you.