CIOs, do you feel like you have a bullseye on your back?  I'm guessing that's a resounding "YES!"  But when it comes to vendors, a bullseye isn't necessarily a bad thing.  And all that vendor interest shouldn't be a surprise considering that, in most companies, CIOs have the largest capital and non-salary expense budgets.  Translated, that means vendors are vying for the attention of CIOs, not only new vendors trying to get business but existing vendors trying to retain and grow their business.  Let's be honest, generally speaking, there's a direct correlation between $$$ and vendor commitment; the more ongoing $$$ you have to spend, the more vendors are going to be committed to the relationship.

But with vendors falling all over you like delegates fainting at an Obama rally, how do you determine which vendors to court and spend time with?  Continuing with the political analogy, are you wasting time with a small constituency or are you spending time with the super delegates?  You probably have vendors calling you day and night, wanting to take you to lunch, dinner, golfing--you name it. (Hint: Most vendors know to call CIOs at lunch or after 5:00 pm, when CIOs are most likely to be at their desks.  If you get an outside call at those times, don't pick it up unless you're willing to talk to a vendor.)  If you took all of those vendor offers, you'd never have time to focus on anything else.  If you accept none of them, you're going to sleight some of your key (critical) vendors.  So, which vendors should you spend time with?

Good news; there's any easy answer.  Go to your Vendor Management Office (VMO), ask them for a list of the top 20 vendors by spend, current vendors by category, and the "rules of engagement."  With that, and when a vendor calls you, you'll know (or your admin will know) how important that vendor is, whether you should return the call, delegate it, or just outright ignore it.  When a vendor asks you to lunch, same thing: you'll know whether to go, get someone else to go, or just say "no, thanks."

Don't have a VMO-type of function at your company or in your organization?  That's a problem you need to quickly remedy.  Don't have vendors categorized or any vendor rules of engagement?  Well, show your VMO this blog post, and ask them to come up with something appropriate for your IT organization.   The rules of engagement are pretty simple; for example, if you have a vendor  in the "Strategic" category call you during the competitive bidding phase, take the call.  Same vendor, but in negotiations?  Delegate the call to your VMO.





While these rules of engagement do provide good rationale for determining where to invest time with vendors, it doesn't cover all nuances and still requires good judgment.  For example, if a vendor in the “Valued” category requests a lunch meeting during the “Relationship Problems” phase, and the vendor intends on having senior level vendor staff present at the lunch to work through the relationship issues, you should accommodate the request.  If the requested lunch was merely for glad-handing by the vendor, the rules of engagement cover that scenario (decline the invitation).

Not only do rules of engagement save you time, it appropriately allocates your time to vendors that deserve it (and who may not be getting your time because you're spending time with the wrong vendors).