With the news of late buzzing about the evolution of the CIO’s role, Cisco’s CIO Rebecca Jacoby sheds some light on the subject and why the CIO role is more relevant than ever. In this interview, she talks about her role as Cisco’s CIO, tips to help partners sell to a CIO, and areas where she’s investing.
What have been your experiences selling to a CIO? Do you have any questions for Rebecca?
Posted by Alexandra Krasne at 04:40PM PST
I think the overall knowledge level of partners needs to be enhanced. Most OEs assume that they will have similar competencies but they can not hire beyond a point. So lot more training might do the magic.
Definitely corresponds with what we see in the market in terms of what approaches and strategies work when selling to the CIOs. It is no longer enough to walk into the CIO’s office with a TCO calculator, as CIOs are increasingly concerned with the business value drivers of IT investments. See my related blog entry: http://piquesolutions.com/blog/?p=138
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Bob Olwig Jun 18, 2009
I also saw Rebecca’s keynote at the Cisco Partner summit in Boston. She was very good at articulating the issues that CIO’s face and how she & Cisco are addressing them. It’s certainly a message that Cisco’s partner sales teams should try to understand.
I would also stress the "architectural" focus that CIO’s are looking for. "Architecture" provides for an overall capability and not just a point solution which may not scale and provide the business value over the long term.