Partnering With the CIO: The Future of IT Sales Seen Through the Eyes of Key Decision Makers

Keeping It Real

For Sweeney, IT governance covers a wide territory. “There’s the financial component of IT governance that says it’s my job to ensure that for every dollar we spend, we get $1.10 worth of value. Another part of IT governance is making sure that the technologies people think they need are actually needed,” he explains.

It’s natural for IT sales reps to position their products as the best solutions for a variety of business problems. It’s also standard practice for IT sales reps to seek champions within the various business units of their customer organizations. As a result of these common sales practices, IT executives such as Sweeney find themselves fielding requests for specific solutions to unspecified problems.

In some instances, however, the most appropriate solution might be a different product from the same supplier or a product from another supplier. Sometimes the customer already owns the right solution but isn’t aware of it.

Occasionally, the right solution doesn’t require adding new technology. Not long ago, Sweeney recalls, an executive at another bank convinced himself that he needed a document scanning system. The executive filed a request with IT, and a project manager was assigned.

The project manager asked the executive why he needed the system. The executive told the project manager that whenever his administrative assistant took a day off, he couldn’t find any of his documents.

After applying the bank’s IT governance processes to the request, the ...