978-1259573200 Section 4 Section 4 Part 3

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Gartner Buyer Scenario

Situation 5 PORT GROUP

Buyer A

You are the Director of Network Support for Port Group, a company with offices in New

York, London, San Francisco, and your city. The company is a commercial real estate

owner, property manager, and lender – each of these divisions has its own director who

reports to the Chief Operating Officer. Each year, the company creates an investment fund

for qualified investors and then uses that to acquire commercial, industrial, or multi-family

real estate, or to loan to others who want to buy real estate. The company owns just over

200 properties.

The rep had an appointment with the CIO but he had an emergency appendectomy

yesterday so you are covering his appointments. There is also a Director of Cyber

Security, a Data Manager, and a Director of Systems, all of whom report to the CIO. You

are the most senior of the team.

The company is working to grow significantly over the next three years, and may go

international. You know that the team has been tasked with looking ahead to the

technology needs, what needs to be improved, what can wait, etc. There’s been discussion

over whether to bring in a consultant to help with the planning process, but budgets are

tight.

Obviously, no decision will be made today. In fact, you expect any decision to involve the

full team. You are an expressive.

1. Budgets are tight – not sure where we can get money for this. (One possibility

would be using the cost optimization tool, which might identify possible savings

but no guarantee.)

Gartner Buyer Scenario

Situation 5 PORT GROUP

Buyer B

You are the CIO of Port Group, a company with offices in New York, London, San

Francisco, and your city. The company is a commercial real estate owner, property

manager, and lender – each of these divisions has its own director who reports to the Chief

Operating Officer. Each year, the company creates an investment fund for qualified

investors and then uses that to acquire commercial, industrial, or multi-family real estate,

or to loan to others who want to buy real estate. The company owns just over 200

properties.

The CIO is a new position. In the past, each of the three divisions had its own IT director

who handled IT specific to that division. The only central IT operation was a group that

managed the network and the company’s overall financial system – you directed that

group and were promoted to CIO at the start of the year. As a result of each division

operating more or less independently, there’s a lot of IT that doesn’t integrate well. The

company has grown too large for that to continue. You need to re-organize and integrate

the IT team, as well as set a strategic plan for integration the IT systems. Any decision you

make on consulting services will have to involve the COO and CFO, as your budget isn’t

entirely set yet.

Objections:

1. I need to consider all possibilities – Forester, Accenture, etc. – so I’m going to

look around.

Gartner Buyer Scenario

Situation 6 JAMES MANUFACTURING

Buyer A

Your company manufactures custom metal components that other companies design into

their own products. Examples include the case used to make the milkshake machines used

at McDonald’s restaurants and the metal frames used in making airplane seating. The

company serves a three-state area. It was just taken over by the third generation of the

James family, and the new president wants to grow the business aggressively. You have an

appointment with the Gartner rep, who called and said that Gartner could help your

company grow.

While the president has plans to grow aggressively, most of these plans involve getting

new manufacturing equipment that will enable the company to offer more products to

more clients. There are also plans to grow marketing, with a stronger digital marketing

platform and the head of marketing will likely make that decision. There hasn’t been much

talk of growing the IT infrastructure or what the implications that the growth will have on

IT. You are most concerned about the antiquated ERP system that you use to manage

inventory, job costing, and the like. The functionality is poor and it doesn’t integrate with

the computer–based engineering product that your engineers use to design the products.

You are an amiable.

1. I don’t know if the president or any of the other senior leaders have any appetite

for IT spending, much less spending on IT consulting services.

Gartner Buyer Scenario

Situation 6 JAMES MANUFACTURING

Buyer B

Your company manufactures custom metal components that other companies design into

their own products. Examples include the case used to make the milkshake machines used

at McDonald’s restaurants and the metal frames used in making airplane seating. The

company serves a three-state area. It was just taken over by the third generation of the

James family, and the new president wants to grow the business aggressively. You have an

appointment with the Gartner rep, who called and said that Gartner could help your

company grow.

You are an amiable. You’ve been with the company for a very long time, long enough to

have known the president (who is now 36 years old) some twenty years. You are afraid

that the president views you as being out of date and possibly incapable of handling the

growth, even though you’re only ten years older. So one of your objections will relate to

fear of being viewed as incapable, thus needing a consultant. The solution should

ultimately be access to the senior consultant but let the rep figure it out. If the rep doesn’t,

then ask what services they provide to help CIOs stay on top of things.

1. I don’t think I need this help. (If probed, say it doesn’t look good – I should be

able to do this myself.)

Gartner Buyer Scenario

Situation 7 FUTURIS DESIGN

Buyer A

You are the CIO of Futuris Design, and your little brother/sister was a friend of the

Gartner rep in college but don’t bring that up. Futuris Design makes commercial display

systems used in showrooms and trade shows. There are approximately 50 projects that are

“live” at any particular time. These projects generally last between two weeks and three

months, with shorter projects being trade show booth designs and longer projects going

into commercial showrooms. The projects require several meetings with clients, suppliers,

and sometimes municipal building inspectors. The president wishes to increase the number

of projects that the company can handle without additional personnel. The company

president introduced you to the Gartner rep, said they met at a charity golf event, and that

it might be a good idea to talk with them.

You are an expressive and you are young for being a CIO. You’re very proud of the fact

that you are the CIO at such an early age and you are very ambitious. In this scenario, you

are pretty satisfied with the way things are going and what you’ve accomplished, and you

hope to be moving on at some point in the future (say a year or two) to a bigger company

and more responsibility. If the rep brings up the access to a senior analyst, ask questions

like “What’s that mean?” and “What does that person do?” Your thinking is that you might

learn something that can help you advance your career.

If there’s a weak spot in your company’s IT systems, it’s in your people. They really aren’t

very innovative. You know that to move on to the next place, you need some good

showcase actions that you can point to and show others what a great CIO you are.

Objections:

1. At the beginning, say something like, “I’m not really sure why we’re meeting and

I’m pretty busy. Why don’t you leave your materials and I’ll let you know if there’s

an interest?”