Traveling back from a business trip to Boston last week I found myself at Logan Airport, hungry, and waiting for my evening flight home. Sitting in one of the airport eateries watching the Red Sox in the process of losing their opening day game, I struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler. Turns out he was a technology guy too. Steve Costa (if the name sounds familiar that’s because he was on the U.S. Olympic swim team back in the early 90’s) is a Technical Consultant at EMC, the storage company. In any case, I talked with this subject matter expert at length about the state-of-the-state in storage. It was a nice way to pass the time. We swapped war stories, I learned a few things, and we exchanged business cards when we parted.
On the way home I reflected on our conversation, not so much about the technical specifics but more importantly about the criteria used when evaluating a potential vendor.
Yes, some folks with deep pockets take the easy way out. It’s not particularly difficult to pick the “Cadillac” out of the crowd – the product that not only has the features and functionality that you need but ALL the features and functionality that could possibly exist in the entire product matrix. It’s easy to get caught up in everything a product or vendor can do but it’s imperative to stay focused on your specific needs. Keep yourself in check and it will maximize the value for your capital dollars spent.
Business relationships are key too! It’s hard to assign a numeric rating scale (there’s some subjectivity here) but if time has proven anything it’s the willingness of both parties in a business deal to get through the difficult times that make for a successful long term relationship. The bumps in the road inadvertently always come up. It’s how you deal with them that matters most.
Whether it’s products or services, we’re likely talking about the account team and the support group, their effectiveness, timeliness and overall strategic value. The other thing I like to see in a company I’m going to do business with is an accessible and engaged senior management team. It’s settling to know you can pick up the phone and talk to an executive that can advocate for your special needs when they arise. I’ve done business with well established companies, as well as enterprise technology startups that have become wildly successful – do your home work, evaluate the people (it’s like an interview) and stay engaged once you get the ball rolling.
It’s been about four years since I did business with EMC but based on my happenstance meeting with Steve and his subsequent follow-up, they’re coming in to see us later this week for a product briefing. EMC apparently has a renewed push in the SMB space. I’m looking forward to it!
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