8.1.2019 Strategic planning day!
Fresh and ready to kick off 2019 whilst the vendor world are packing their suitcases and heading off to their fancy sales conferences in Vegas, I’m in our Paddington office looking at the grey London sky and a blank page. What do our customers need from us this year?
In the eyes of the God ‘Gartner’
“Organisations seek value from IT Partners to drive down costs, while also enabling innovation and competitive advantage”.
Well that should be straight forward then.
Since the industry shift in 2008 and the emergence of ‘the cloud’ we’ve focussed on a consultative role, assisting regularly in the evaluation of alternatives and facilitating adoption through planning and migration services. Thankfully our customers are no longer limited to conventional on-premises solutions, as we increasingly act as a core part of the cloud service market both advising, resourcing and managing services.
Quantifying added value and competitive advantage is the most significant challenge when they choose a partner. Our customers have to deliver;
- Expertise, optimising and reducing costs of infrastructure, software and cloud services as an outcome
- Demand a specific cadence of updates, reporting and touchpoints in accordance with their unique requirements
- Prompt administrative and professional services
- Cross region presence for organisations with international and decentralised procurement models
So my key focus for this year will be;
- Vendor relationships – assessing those with the ability to deliver solutions with a reduced cost and heightened service level
- Communication flow – are we getting this right and making the most of our tools
- Reducing customer stress – how can we take away burden from their teams?
- More time looking at delivery models further afield to enhance our International partnerships
I wonder what the weather’s like in Vegas!!!