Vendors are changing focus

I started in IT way back in the early 90's, back when being the technical guy was the cool thing if you wanted to get treated right by vendors.  I got to go to baseball games, got taken to dinner, etc, etc, etc.  And it was all because the technology vendors wanted my support so I would tell my boss to buy their stuff.

As I got farther into my career and starting dealing a little more with business issues, I noticed that I was still getting a lot of focus.  And until recently, I just figured the vendors liked me and wanted to take me to lunch (yea, right).  But then I started looking closer, and I realized that I was making a transition in my career at about the same time the vendors (and resellers) were making a shift in their strategy.  And what is that shift?  For me, it was getting into management roles.  For the vendors, it was a shift of focus onto the decision-maker, and away from the geek.

Think about this.  When I was in my company's annual sales kick-off in January, we had a security sales expert come in to talk to us about sales strategy.  Basically, the guy told us to ignore the geek and focus strictly on the decision-maker (preferably a C-level spot, but that is often difficult).  Then, when you have convinced the power broker of the need for your gear or services, you talk to the geek for implementation. 

Now for the sales person, that may sound obvious.  But why wasn't that happening back in my day as a geek?  Why was I getting catered to back then?  Here's my theory.  In the '90s, technology was king.  Every company was spending big bucks, and they weren't necessarily looking at business needs in the most efficient manner to make decisions.  Many managers were just depending on their technical people to tell them what they needed, and then they signed the PO (and sales people were just sitting by their phones as orders rolled in). 

Then the bust happened. Dotcom's started falling off the map quickly.  The landscape changed dramatically.  And some of those ubergeeks from then have now moved into management, and some of those managers from then (if they didn't get shot by employees or employers) are working in higher management.  They DO NOT want to get stung again (especially with the economy starting to drag).   They realize now that they have to make better business decisions when making technology and services decisions.  And the vendors and resellers have seen this trend as well.

So as I have often preached, you should make security and technology decisions with the business in mind.  And as this mindset has become more accepted and recognized as being a superior approach, the vendors and resellers have started preaching it loud and clear as well.  Amazing how money motivates so many things.