Enterprise IT contracts are an unavoidable fact of life in many large organisations. So much so, in fact, that they have almost become the norm. So what I’m about to say may be jarring to many.
I believe Enterprise IT Contracts are regressive and harmful to an organisation.
Let me be clear, by “Enterprise IT Contract” I am referring to the sorts of multi-million dollar, all-encompassing, “we will supply anything and everything” contract that many large vendors push to their Enterprise clients.
Of course, there are many smaller businesses which simply cannot justify an IT department, and for these companies having a good Enterprise-wide IT deal can make a lot of sense. But those people don’t, by definition, have IT departments and CIOs.
The problem is when large companies with IT departments and CIOs feel that the best strategy is to spend millions in order to trap themselves into a single-vendor. Because no IT vendor on the planet has the best products for every requirement and, even if your IT infrastructure is based on a particular vendor’s architecture, there are always alternative products which will fit into that architecture which work better, cost less to run, and benefit your business more.
When a CIO signs up to one of these deals, they are basically admitting they don’t know what they are doing.
I should point out that this opinion has been form from years of experience of seeing these deals, and even working with the people who make them (and seeing their motivations).
Leave a Reply