It seems that mid-market CIOs are more frustrated than ever with large software vendors. During a discussion between mid-market CIOs at a recent CIO conference, nearly all shared very negative experiences. Dramatic, last minute changes in pricing models, little or no response to problems, and often "dead-air" on the "other end of line" when attempting to contact the vendor about problems typify the complaints. More so than ever, these CIOs are feeling held hostage by and with little or no leverage over their software suppliers. Some CIOs resolve this by taking advantage of their service provider's association with the large software vendors; often they have better relationships with software suppliers because of their partnerships (i.e., MS Gold Partner, etc.) and avenues for communication not available to many CIOs. Often this approach works; however, just as often it falls far short. What to do? For those of us caught in the middle, maybe its time to try a different strategy.

There are a number of software organizations positioned to offer alternatives to the usual suspects list of large vendors. Most notable among them may be Google. Google Apps provides an ever expanding offering list that includes email, IM, word processing, spreadsheets, calendar, ten gigs/user of storage (I couldn't afford 100 meg/user from my last outsourced vendor), collaboration, and web publishing -- all at fifty buck a user a year. Combine that with extensible APIs to integrate with 3d party systems, administrative controls to manage your domain, soon to be released exportable email, 24/7 support, and three nines of reliability, and all of a sudden you have a pretty interesting proposition for a mid-market enterprise office app suite. Does it sound too good to be true? Is it too inflexible or risky? I don't know the answer to those questions and I'm certainly not advocating a Google world. But, riddle me this batman: What if droves of CIOs in a unified front approached Google with a list of clear requirements that would allay our fears of Google Apps? What if Google responded by building in added capabilities to meet our requirements? That just might change the entire dynamic of our relationships with some of our software suppliers. Google type alternatives such as this might not solve all our woes but they would certainly give us an alternative to dangle in front of a particularly difficult sales account manager and help us tilt the balance of power more in our favor. I can see myself walking into a negotiation singing the software version of a Johnny Paycheck classic...

So, those are just some ruminations about empowering the mid-market CIO through the lever of competition. If other CIOs want to band together to give it a try, I'm all for leading the charge to Mountain View (or wherever). If not, I'll go back to my email client and turn up Johnny Paycheck.

Vendors like accounts to be references for future sales.  It is amazing how much extra support and care you get from vendors when you offer this upfront.  I also volunteer to speak at their annual conferences on the success of a project using their technology.  This might even get you free resources.