InformationWeek

There must be a better way to gain mind share from a CIO. As a CIO, what gets your attention? What has made you select this new vendor over that new vendor?

Please advise.

Thanks,
Frank

Dear Frank:
In order of priority, here are the things that get my attention as a CIO:

1. A disruption of service.
   Anything that is going to affect our ability to serve our customers or affect our image with them is of major importance to me. In general, my staff takes care of such things (may they be rare) without waiting to tell me, but I have a standing rule that I want to know as soon as possible about outages or potential outages. I don't want to find out from Kratmeyer or Stagweg that the computers are having a bad-hair day.
2. A member of the staff who wants to see me about a personnel problem, their own or someone else's.
   One of the things that I have learned during the years is that if someone is upset enough to come see a boss who may be several levels above them in the organization, it is important to them and they should be kept waiting as little as possible. I remember several occasions when, as I was leaving for the day, someone appeared at my door, looking upset or nervous, asking if they could spend a few minutes talking to me. I would ask them to come in, and then I'd call Cindy and tell her I'd be late (one time she had theater tickets and we barely made the show after a very hurried snack instead of the dinner we'd planned). Some of the problems were serious, others not so, but all were important to the people involved. Have I ever regretted taking the time right then and there? Never.
3. The status and cost of key projects.
   Part of the job of the CIO is to ensure, to the best of his or her ability, the success of the initiatives under way in the company. If the people on the staff know that their efforts are important to you, they will treat the project commensurately.
4. The strategic direction of the company.
   As I've said many times, the system direction of the company must support the business direction, and the business direction must reflect the possibilities opened up by information technology. You don't really deal with strategic direction every day, but along with treating people properly, it has the most meaningful impact on the company's future.
5. Talking to vendors.
   You probably thought I forgot the rest of your question or wondered why I was taking so long getting to it. By listing my priorities, as you requested (and I doubt my priorities are much different than other CIOs), I think you may have a better understanding as to why it is so hard to get time with most CIOs.

Keep up the good work.
Buzz

Dear Buzz:
Thanks for the kind words about the column. I'm also glad that you enjoyed "Crazy People." It is a favorite of mine.

While I agree with you that I'd love to see the movie's approach to advertising emulated in the real world, I don't think that it's an issue of hardware/software/services vendors' honesty. It seems to me that the problem is that the sales brochures--and many of the representatives--cannot clearly explain the purpose of the products and what advantage I get by using them.

Maybe the difficulty occurs because the copywriters who produce the advertisements don't have a clue about what the latest gadget/code/process actually does. To paraphrase another movie, "Cool Hand Luke," perhaps what we have here is a failure to communicate among the developers, sales force, and advertising agency.

I wish I could trash them as promptly as you did, but sometimes my journalistic training makes me want to dig a little to find out what the secret is. I tell myself that it's worth a little research time in case the product turns out to be just the thing we need to solve a problem, but so far it's never panned out.

And the ubiquitous mantra "global fast-paced business ... access is critical ... maintain a competitive edge!" Is there only one copywriter putting these materials together? I actually saw that same blather--paraphrased--in a direct-mail piece I got that was selling a type of wall-mounted three-ring binder, as low-tech a product as they come.

You may be right that a movement is under way to make marketing more like politicking. What is more likely, I think, is that they don't take the time to hand a draft copy of a brochure to someone, anyone, who doesn't work there and then ask the reader what the product is. Be prepared for a shock, Mr./Ms. Marketing VP.

Once I did take the time to provide feedback on one vendor's Web site to make the same point you do. I said that I had read four pages on its site about the product and had no idea if it was software or consulting services, what it specifically would do, or how I could determine if it had any usefulness for our company, and perhaps a clearer description would help people who visited the site. The response I got was a letter thanking me for my interest in the product, and (you probably guessed) a brochure which was a word-for-word copy of the Web site I had complained about. Not to worry, though--I could call if I wanted more information!

Jim P.

Dear Jim:
You have to give the designers of the Web sites a high mark for consistency. They emulate their print brethren in providing what I so fondly call a negative coefficient of information. Invariably, I leave these sites so confused that I feel that I know less than when I started.

I've had similar experiences as you with absurd E-mail responses that not only don't provide information, but seem to go out of their way to irritate. Once, I decided to write a note to a major financial institution about its inept service. So I went to the "feedback" section of the company's site and put my complaint in what I thought was an articulate message. Like you, I received an E-mail response that was totally inappropriate, thanking me for my loyalty as a customer. Not content to leave sleeping incompetents alone, I called the office of the president and communicated my dismay to his executive assistant. Very professionally, she took my name and number so that the Guru of Annoyed Customers could reach me. Within an hour, I received a phone call. The very cultured lady on the other end of the line listened carefully and then explained just as carefully that the automated response I received was the bank's way of letting its customers know that it valued their input even though the bank did not have the staff available to read every message sent to it. Faced with this brilliant logic, I gave up and retreated to my home office, where I began to destroy all credit cards from said institution.

The propaganda (marketing) slicks all say the same thing, whether it's product or people. Until the hyperbole stops, it's the individual consultants such as myself who will always be shouldered out of the way in favor of the fancy brochure that promises everything and often delivers an exceedingly high invoice to the client.

However, there are consultants, and I am one, who have worked in many organizations cleaning up the messes left by other consultants who had no interest in the assignment. Many consultants such as I charge fair prices for quality work. Yes, we do get envious of the "big bucks" that many big-name consulting staffers receive.

Possibly you could write a column about us small independents who are what they say they are.

Best regards,
Peter D.

Dear Peter:
Funny that you should bring up the topic. I keep a list of topics for future columns and the subject of consultants has worked its way up close to the top. The problem that I am having is how to cover the subject without casting the net so wide that it unfairly snares the really good consultants--those working independently as well as for large consultancies--who are dedicated to helping their clients.

Herbert W. Lovelace shares his experiences (changing most names, including his own, to protect the guilty) as CIO of a multibillion-dollar international company. Send him E-mail at lovelace@home.com.