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Stakeholders Weigh In on 'Great Vendor Relationships'

Transparency, trust and communication are essential, they agree. Vendors shouldn't go in looking to make a quick sale and then move on, and the state side should take its share of responsibility when things go south.

What should IT vendors know in order to succeed in selling goods and services to state agencies?

And what should representatives of those agencies know in order to get the best goods and services, at the best price, from vendors?

In a seminar Wednesday as part of the California Public Sector CIO Academy 2020 (which continues Thursday), a standing-room-only group of people representing both camps got a peak inside each other’s playbook. Those attending “Tips for Great Vendor Relationships” came away with a list of what to do — and what not to do — no matter which side of the RFP they’re on. The panel was split — half public sector, half private sector. The panelists were:

  • Andrew Armani, Deputy Secretary of Information Technology for the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency and acting AIO of the Government Operations Agency (GovOps). Armani has been a CIO or AIO for 20 of his 30 years with the state.
  • Jason Green, Area Vice President for NTT Data
  • Kem Musgrove, CIO of the state Franchise Tax Board
  • Mark Roese, Assistant Vice President with AT&T
Armani, state government’s longest-serving CIO or AIO, keeps it simple for state workers who interact with private-sector IT reps: “Don’t be afraid of the vendors.” He believes that when it comes to relations with vendors, state CIOs and others should “trust your intuition” in weighing whether to trust a vendor. And for state workers, he said, that trust can be best nurtured outside the office: “Coffee or lunch — it’s OK. They’re not aliens.” Armani noted that vendors can be good sources of insider industry information for those in the public sector.

What to Do

  • Practice transparency. If both parties understand each other’s motivations and have established trust, the chances of a project’s success are much greater, all panelists agreed. “Seek to understand” is the advice from FTB’s Musgrove, the CIO of a department with more than 1,000 IT staffers. He counseled against “hidden agendas.”
  • Do your homework. NTT’s Green said relationships in business, as in personal life, are always better when one prepares and does the homework first. “What’s driving this project? What’s success look like? What’s in it for them?”
  • Be there before and after the deal. AT&T’s Roese noted that vendors shouldn’t always look for the quick sale or the one-off contract; that doesn’t build trust or longevity. “Be there before and after the transaction, win or lose.” If the state needs a solution that the vendor can’t provide, the next best thing is a referral to another company that can, Roese said. “Eventually, I’m going to be part of that solution – if not this time, then next time.”
What Not to Do

  • “Don’t always blame the vendor” if a transaction or a project goes off the rails, Armani said.
  • “Don’t be your own worst enemy” was another of Armani’s takeaways. “Don’t bad-mouth the competition.” That’s especially true in industry, where an account executive may change companies several times in a career. Don’t burn a bridge you may later need to cross.
  • “Be willing to take your lumps” if a contract or a project goes off the rails, Green said. “You’ve got to be there when the project isn’t going well.”
  • “Don’t expect all the risk to be on the vendor side,” Musgrove said. “Be fair and reasonable.” As a stakeholder, the state should accept its share or responsibility when a project needs to be retooled, reassessed or scrapped, he added.
The moderator, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) CIO George Akiyama, offered some tips from his own long experience on the state side of IT.

“It’s about these long-term relationships” and good communication, he said.

Akiyama also referred to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Request for Innovative Ideas” (RFI2) initiative, under which vendors devise and propose solutions to state needs rather than simply selling solutions devised by the state.

“Be open to smaller-scale conversations” along the way as part of the ongoing dialog between state and vendor, he counseled. If the CIO and the vendor are conversing regularly, both parties should organically have come to a shared understanding of a solution — the essence of RFI2.

And finally, the panelists all acknowledged that sometimes contracts or projects are doomed. In such cases, the best approach is acceptance.

“Raise your hand early and often,” Green advised stakeholders on both sides. “Fail early, if you’re going to fail.”

Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.