Nibble: How's that relationship between your strategic IT supplier and their bank going?

Are they still talking? Do they still hold hands?

In the simple days of yore, the ideal background for a CIO was something technical. Not any more. I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing job wanted ads phrased like this:

"Wanted new CIO! Must have solid technical track record. Previous experience as a venture capitalist also desirable."

Hold on a minute! You're not buying shares in the IT companies whose products you use, so why do you need to start thinking like a shareholder? As long as the stuff is cheap and works and is well supported - why should you really care?

You are a shareholder buddy. Although you may not know it...

All those days invested when you sent people to train on that stuff from Company X. All the research and testing you do (all the time it seems) to make sure that everything new you buy is compatible. All that effort and cost keeping up with the upgrades. You may not care whether Company X actually starts paying dividends (and how much of that you'll get to keep if Bush gets his tax bill through.) But from where I'm sitting brothers and sisters you look just like shareholders to me.

When Company X has a marital tiff with its banks and investors which turns into a crisis - remember it's the banks who get to keep the keys of the jointly owned home. And there may not always be a forwarding address.

In recent weeks we've seen long established computer companies like Sun Microsystems and Legato Systems report losses which were the same order of magnitude as their revenue. Sun's loss in the quarter ended December 29, 2002 was $2.283 billion on a revenue of $2.915 billion. Meanwhile Legato reported a nett loss of $228.8 million on annual revenue of $261.9 million. Ouch!

These are only accounting tricks, you might scoff, to clean up the balance sheets and make them look good next time. There are plenty of other examples of companies which are doing a lot worse. True.

I'm sure that's what the companies in Japan were saying to their banks back in the 1980s when they were still charging down the "growth at any price" road which led the Japanese economy into stagnation for more than a decade.

But the banks in the west aren't the same as the banks in Japan.

Patience is no longer regarded as a virtue in western banking. OK there was a time when "growth at any price" or "sustaining market share" were arguments which you could use with your investors to keep them sweet when the results were bad. That was before the dot bombs.

The true test of any relationship is what happens when things get a bit stressed. But what if your bank is having an off day? Or just a bad year?

So how's that affair with your IT supplier and their bank going nowadays?

I'm not asking if you think they still sleep together. But do they still hold hands? Chances are that your future peace of mind might depend on it.

and now in German

Kennen Sie das Verhältnis zwischen Ihrem strategischen IT-Lieferanten und seiner Bank ?

Editor:- a new German storage portal called speicherguide.de is running a translated version of the above article, which I originally wrote for STORAGEsearch.com.

For our German speaking readers, speicherguide.de may be worth a visit because many of the news stories also have locally generated content.

It's sometimes good for marketers to remember that although many VARs and systems managers in Europe do read English computer publications, their customers don't.