IT suppliers plan to give clients what they don't want

IT suppliers should talk less about their breadth of services and more about the savings they can offer -- if they want to impress would-be clients at pitch or bidding stage, a study suggests.

Supplier hopefuls who resist harping on about their ‘CIO-level consultancy’ will fare even better, as will those who go on to invoice monthly, not on an ad hoc basis, found LogicNow.

Or IT suppliers can just stick to how they currently operate, and maintain a “concerning level of discord” between what they offer as providers, and what end-users want as customers.

According to the study, which involved 1,300 IT departments and 700 IT service providers across eight geographies, this discord starts from the outset.

In fact, many departments only reached out to the IT providers to help tackle an "immediate, business-critical need," but many providers responded with a "wider, more consultative service."

Whether they were in North America or Benelux, or New Zealand or the UK, the IT service providers were accused of prioritising their wider service above the immediate requirement.

“Pushing strategic consultancy too early in the relationship gives an impression of under-valuing the immediate concern weighing heaviest on the customer’s mind,” warned LogicNow’s Alistair Forbes.

“IT departments engage with service providers because they have a particular problem that needs solving; this must be addressed first to earn the opportunity of a strategic engagement later on.”

This desire for a more “strategically-focused” relationship is what two-thirds of IT service providers in the UK said they wanted in future. Though only 9% of departments want the same.

The service providers aren’t about to blink first. On security, for example, they plan to pitch consultancy, pro-active updates and patching. Clients actually just want better email security, stronger web protection and improved AV.

Overall, their four priorities – in order – when selecting an IT supplier are cost savings/advantages; experience of outfits with similar IT, experience with similarly sized outfits and clarity of pricing.

Yet when they pitch, IT suppliers prioritise – in order - breadth of services (ranked fifth in the client’s eyes); cost savings/advantages, experience of outfits with similar IT and ability to provide ‘CIO-level consultancy.’

Mr Forbes reflected: “Considering IT departments rank the provision of CIO consultancy at the very bottom of their priorities, this is an area of huge potential frustration for IT service providers’ customers.”

Billing is another flashpoint between IT suppliers and their clients. Three-quarters of tech providers say they will keep invoicing as and when expenditure occurs, much to the chagrin of 84% of clients, who want to receive just one invoice on a monthly or quarterly basis.

And as to solutions to the general discord, even those are at odds. The best answer (backed by 45% of clients) is for IT suppliers to put more emphasis on technical resolution, however the suppliers say they already know what the fix is -- to sharpen their focus on "strategic consultancy."

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