What makes a great partnership at the enterprise level?
I was in a renewal conversation where the renewal of that company went down. You could argue there was a vested interest, but we didn't want to lose the logo as it would affect our investment numbers, etc. It’s not an easy conversation to have. We were very cognizant of the fact that it wasn't a fully valued product and we could do without it for 1-2 years, but they were willing to accept a much lower aspect. That showed a level of partnership and maturity from the company that benefited them well.
When I was a CIO of multiple companies, speaking to customers was one aspect of my role. I was a vendor to them in some cases, but we've also managed a set of vendors. If we think about the larger partnerships that evolve from a CIO relationship, they typically reside in the larger investments that we make in SaaS companies or other vendors we put in place. In some cases it’s the large providers like the AWSs of this world. In other cases it’s smaller companies, like when I sat on the Salesforce CIO Advisory Board. I considered them a major partner to our company, therefore partnerships were built.
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Too many active projects at once42%
Poor communication49%
Too many customizations46%
Misalignment with business priorities35%
Skills gaps26%
Lack of resources20%
Other (please list in the comments)1%
Production45%
Backup65%
Replication33%
Non-production DBs (Dev, Training, QA, etc.)30%
The initial vendors helped set up our foundation and got us out of the trenches, but now we have to really operationalize. We need to get keen on KPIs like ticket closure and delivery times again because we're scaling, so no one can have not a laptop. Some folks are great when you're still scrappy but then, once you start getting big and regulated, you need to have more rigor. And there are just different companies that you will ask for help when you get to that point.