A Supporting Role

Almost all of the CIOs agree that, apart from a valuable exchange of information, at the very least brand awareness, if not out-and-out sales support, forms an intrinsic part of the motivation behind vendor CIOs getting out into the marketplace.

Thompson says his role covers information, brand awareness and sales support. "The interaction with customers during and after the sales cycle is one of the most fulfilling parts of my job."

Petty admits quite openly that, when he was CIO, he did a lot of talking outside the organization. "We used it as a sales technique," he says, but adds that brand awareness is used not just with customers but to attract staff. "It can attract interest in that a company is doing good stuff in IT, which is where the good IT people want to go."

McBride says his activities are primarily for information sharing, and Richmond-Jones says she definitely does not do sales support, although in her case there are extenuating circumstances - which might be changing.

"When I first came into this role [at the end of the 1990s], [CSC's] internal systems were broken. You wouldn't have wanted to put me up in front of customers at that time." She adds that, in the early days, she was also busy integrating a number of outsourcing projects, so there was not a lot of time or inclination to talk to people outside the organization.

The company also had good reason not to put her up as sales support. "Particularly in the early days, I'd confuse delivery with sales," Richmond-Jones says, suggesting that at times she would jump in with a "you can't do that".

"I only paint a realistic picture," she says. For example, with CSC's Australian headquarters as a reference site for its own integrated telephony system (CSC is the system integrator and supplier of services using either Nortel or Cisco kits), she says she has not always been as unreservedly enthusiastic as the traditional image of reference sites demands. "This means that customers tend to trust me and come back for more."

However, her lack of sales support experiences may change over the next year, "partly because we have stabilized our systems, we're more marketing oriented, and we have a new sales VP. But I'm cool with that," Richmond-Jones says.