Shell's Ecosystem Guiding Principles mandate how its 11 core vendors should treat Shell and each other. To mitigate competition between suppliers-on Shell territory, at least-CIO Alan Matula has banned most salesmen from his offices and demands Shell and vendor staff respect the culture and heritage of each other's companies.

CIOs must move from quick wins to being the master of their balance sheets and major business operations, Gartner’s head of global research has claimed.

Ovum has released new figures indicating that the IT services sector has bounced back from a tough first quarter with the number of deals increasing by 14 per cent in Q2.

The liberating and game-changing effects of cloud computing on today's IT shops cannot be overstated: On the fly, it seems, CIOs and their staffs are reprioritizing application-portfolio strategies, rearchitecting systems roadmaps, rethinking vendor contracts and much more. Prices may have dropped, but strategic IT planning is still as relevant as ever.

How are relations between not-for-profit with IT vendors?

I had a problem with the power steering on my old Toyota, so I took it to a mechanic, and he told me, "We'll try and fix it." "Excuse me, you'll try?" "Right, we'll try, but if we can't, we'll charge you anyway."

In my recent visits with CIOs and executives in the IT vendor community, I keep noticing how we're still "so close, yet so far away" from one another.