The big consulting firms are regularly criticized for such conflicts of interest, particularly on enterprise software projects, but just about every IT service provider is guilty of bringing in its cohorts at one time or another. Clearly, the service providers you want to engage are those willing to ruffle the feathers of their vendor constituents to do what's in your organization's best interests.
Do prospective vendors regularly go over your head--to the CIO, the CEO or your department head--when they're not making headway with you? More important to your standing within your organization, do such tactics ever succeed?
Brent Zempel, CIO of health club operator Life Time Fitness, tells of the time Larry Ellison approached Life Time's CEO with a proposal to replace the company's homegrown customer-service system and the people who built and manage it with an Oracle application and team--a scheme the CEO eventually passed on (and which, no doubt, did wonders for Oracle's standing among Life Time's IT rank and file). If the buck on IT decisions really stops with you and your organization, smart vendors will work within that structure.
It's a Two-Way Street
Remember, though, that acting like a partner isn't just a vendor's responsibility. You must reciprocate. Beating your vendor into submission on price, for instance, may help you pull off a project and enhance your standing with the bean counters, but it's no way to forge a long-term partnership. What goes around comes around.
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