As CIO roles evolve, the technology vendors they choose — and their deepening relationships — are critical components of IT investment and enterprise success.
More than ever, today’s CIOs need true technology partners who share their vision and help pave the path to get there — partners who play a strategic, proactive role in delivering solutions focused on business outcomes.
CIOs weigh in
Many organizations are already working with tech partners in this way. Lenovo commissioned new research surveying more than 500 CIOs worldwide.1
Eight in 10 agree their technology vendors are so well integrated into the organization that they increase the CIO’s overall productivity.1And 92% consider their technology vendors among the most important or very important factors ensuring continued effective business operations.
With swiftly changing workplace needs, simplifying, and accelerating tech adoption is vital. Vendors who focus in these four areas deliver significant value to IT organizations.
- One-vendor solutions remove complexity from sourcing and integrating
- End-to-end services take the burden off IT, from planning to deployment to maintenance
- Easy-to-use technology meets employee expectations and reduces support needs
- Remote manageability provides efficient visibility and control
The challenge of multiple vendors
In Lenovo’s CIO survey, 61% of respondents find managing an increasingly large and fragmented IT vendor ecosystem extremely or very challenging.1 Vendor management systems (VMS) can help manage everything from vetting, purchasing, and onboarding to performance monitoring and invoicing with varying degrees of automation.
The perfect complement to a strategic approach
As-a-Service (aaS) models, also known as consumption models, are an increasingly important way to modernize, simplify, secure, and scale while handing off device, platform, or infrastructure management.
Strategic vendors can enable cost-efficient digital transformation and free up IT teams to focus on innovation and trusted advisor collaboration for big-picture initiatives.
Nearly one-quarter of Lenovo CIO survey respondents say 31%–40% of their tech stack is delivered as a service, and 92% would consider adding new as-a-Service offerings in the next two years.
Collaboration is crucial
In a survey of more than 100 large organizations in multiple sectors, McKinsey found companies who regularly collaborated with suppliers demonstrated higher growth, lower operating costs, and greater profitability than their industry peers.2
Reaping those benefits, however, requires new thinking — a different mindset for buyers and suppliers who may be used to more transactional or even adversarial relationships, cost-based versus value-based paradigms, and comfort zones in more siloed than cross-functional communications.
From vendor to partner
With deepening relationships come deeper understanding, insight, and commitment. Deeper relationships are built on alignment of vision and values, collaboration, and trust. Strategic vendor partners:
- Learn the organization’s needs, goals, unique challenges, and IT perspectives
- Educate on what’s possible, recommend customized solutions, and give a range of choices
- Support the cadence appropriate for the organization’s scaling goals, upgrade objectives, and budget
- Engage for configuration, deployment, services, and next-round strategic planning
- Continually share industry knowledge, trends, new technology innovations, and advice
Typical levels of customer-supplier relationships
- Straightforward purchase with contractual fulfillment
- Longer-term contracts with trusted advisor relationship and transparency of information, goals, and roadmaps
- Strategic alliance. Long-term relationship, typically exclusive, with shared business goals and joint solutions
Creating value together
In the McKinsey report “Taking supplier collaboration to the next level,”2 analysts suggest companies who look beyond the limits of focusing on product and service prices can move from cost management to shared revenue generation.
Examples include joint development of products, an integrated approach to supply chain optimization, redesigning waste reduction processes together, and collaborative forecasting, planning, and capacity management.
Creating the future together
It’s a new era of technology vendor relationships. And, as with most aspects of the new era of work, collaboration is a central value. We’ve created a checklist of three key areas to consider when seeking a collaborative technology partner.
To find a tech vendor aligned with your vision, take time to do a little organizational soul-searching. The better you can articulate your needs and expectations, the stronger your benchmarks will be as you evaluate vendors. Here are three key areas to consider.
- Partnership
Look for a true partner with shared aspirations who will work with you to accomplish your goals.- Committed to achieving business outcomes that go beyond simply performing IT tasks
- Aligned with your vision and ready to support your path to get there
- Transparent and collaborative
- Solutions
Look for a technology expert with a track record and an innovative eye on the future.- Focused on whole solutions meant to work and scale together, rather than disparate components
- End-to-end offerings, including hardware, software, and services, designed to lighten the load for IT management
- Comprehensive security coverage with a Zero Trust end-to-end portfolio to safeguard the entire device lifecycle
- Future-forward; embraces innovation, new as-a-service models, and joint value creation opportunities
- Value
Look for a trusted advisor who invests time to really know your industry, organization, customers, and employees.- Shares knowledge, insights, and resources to help you understand trends and make strategic choices
- Flexibility to tailor solutions to your specific needs
- Industry partnerships to deliver a range of technology choices and compatibility with your existing infrastructure
Sources
- Lenovo and Zeno, “SSG Global Study of CIOs,” January 2022
- McKinsey, “Taking supplier collaboration to the next level,” July 2020
How do you evaluate and choose vendor partners? Are you happy with your current vendor relationships or are you having difficulty making the changes you know are necessary to improve operations? Leave your questions and stories in the comment section below to get the conversation going!