CIOs boycotting virtual events by IT companies

Over the last couple of weeks there is a movement gaining momentum within the IT fraternity, especially those who have been seeking a change in the fiscal commitments to service providers, licensed software, and more. The new abnormal brought about a need to cut down on the cash outflow to match the current drop in revenue across industries. CIOs proactively and reactively, individually and collectively attempted to engage the industry into a plan to help their customers, i.e. themselves. With acknowledgements limited to canned responses, it was amply clear that no support was forthcoming from friendly quarters. Frustration reached the overflow mark and something had to break !

WFH (Work From Home) and social distancing to reduce the impact of the virus put a complete halt to meetings, seminars, and gatherings that every vendor/partner hosted individually or by the way of sponsorship to larger events. The IT leaders were pampered by one and all in these conferences with exotic destinations and themes to stay in active consideration whenever solutions or services were required for enterprises. CIOs loved the attention and it was an equilibrium that kept everyone happy – the IT leaders and the vendors who believed that their marketing budgets were well spent in wining and dining them apart from bombarding them with technology solutions and product features – which resulted in business.

WFH necessitated use of virtual conferencing solutions for everyone including the CIOs and their teams. Developers continued to work from home, administrators continued to manage applications, databases, networks and security; managers and staff accessed applications via VPN and data centres continued to hum. Management meetings and daily/weekly reviews conducted virtually had comfort building in from even the past detractors of technology. Despite being tech leaders very few were used to attending and participating in webinars and video broadcasts as a medium for continuous learning.

And then suddenly everything had to be rethought with no travel, no meetings, no conferences, no roundtables, no offsite leisure activities, no mollycoddling their potential and current customers. As everything started moving online and web conferencing which was in the earlier times a targeted activity for the mid layers, it became the new medium to reconvene the groups into the same set of pitches; the difference being that a lot of these were now planned by individual vendors or some industry associations of similar business activities. So there were telecom operators, media houses, and the large vendors who all started carpet bombing with calls and emails.

The conferences of the past did provide a platform for the CIOs to learn about some of the new tech as well as what made sense within their enterprise and industry. The quality of networking was also worth the time spent out of office with fun and games also. The new avatar did not excite but the CIOs had to continue to stay engaged with the ecosystem for opportunities when the lockdown ended and business started reverting to normal. But the lockdown and its impact to business continued to grow and the fear, uncertainty and doubt about the future grew beyond imagination. Pressure started building on reducing the monthly spends and cash fow.

CIOs reached out to their partners individually and collectively to help the cause and renegotiate contracts or reduce the burden in tough times; the canned responses upset the tech decision makers, the lack of empathy pissed them off enough to start thinking of drastic steps. Sounds reasonable, but difficult to execute. How many licenses can be given away or services stopped when almost all contracts did not provide any flexibility for downsizing or deferment of payments under any circumstances ? What would happen in the future if no payment was made now against pending invoices especially when cash was an issue? Will vendors suspend services until past outstanding was paid ? No middle path appeared for the hapless customers.

Interestingly a couple of vendors reached out to some of the CIOs to feature in their outreach programs for CIOs. The collective representing the angst of rejection overpowered the desire to build a brand or be kind to their partners of yore. The swelling tide of anger built up into a boycott of all vendor sponsored events, individual or otherwise. The message was also cascaded downward to the IT teams to shun any contact or participation in activities being hosted by the tech companies. Is this the beginning of a divorce and a rocky relationship that will bring down the partnership of the past ? Is this going to be the new (ab)normal in the camaraderie that has been built over decades of give and take ?

I believe that the future of enterprise technology and the vendor-client relationship would be very different. The CIOs of today will not forget the humiliation of being ignored when they needed their partners the most, when business has come to a grinding halt for most. Other non-tech industry partners have been more empathetic; Boards and CXOs will always remind the technology industry of their inflexibility at every opportunity leaving a probably permanent chasm.