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Gartner

“Do Your RFP Like Your Laundry”

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Doing your laundry isn’t fun, it is a chore. The same can be said about the RFP process for your new ERP. I am not going to tell you there is a way to make it fun, but there are ways to make it faster and less onerous. Like laundry, an RFP can be a heavy load to undertake, but it can also be a light load. It may even be a quick few steps. It is important to do it right though, since you don’t want to start again with a rewash or RFP reissue.

SOURCE: “Do Your RFP Like Your Laundry”

Vendors, Behave Like You Are Part of the Buying Team – Hank Barnes

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As we’ve continued to explore how enterprises make buying decisions, we’ve discovered that the biggest challenges often exist within the buying team.  Fundamentally, for all we talk about buying processes, many organizations don’t really have one.  Or at least one they execute consistently.  Instead, it is a mix of practices, politics, and “gut feel.”     The end result is that many buying teams have regrets about what their buying decisions almost immediately.  This puts them on a path to marginal success at best.

Source: Vendors, Behave Like You Are Part of the Buying Team – Hank Barnes

Don’t Confuse Win Rate and Pipeline Conversion Rate – Steve Rietberg

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Two common measures for sales effectiveness are win rate and pipeline conversion rate. Many confuse or conflate these concepts. “Win rate” has become a generic term used when managers or leaders are looking to quantify a seller or team’s success at closing deals. Win rate is a suitable metric for that purpose, but its value in predictive analytics and forecasting is limited. Sometimes when a business leader is inquiring about win rate, they really need a pipeline conversion rate.

Source: Don’t Confuse Win Rate and Pipeline Conversion Rate – Steve Rietberg

Notes on Analyst Value for Vendors – Anton Chuvakin

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Here is another post vaguely related to analyst craft. And it is about a touchy subject – vendor perception of (industry | market | technology) analyst value. As an aside, I’ve always considered myself “a technology analyst” rather than a market one…

Source: Notes on Analyst Value for Vendors – Anton Chuvakin

Understanding Client Ambitions – Hank Barnes

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Do you understand your customer’s ambitions for the buying efforts and resulting projects that you are working with them on?   Are you sure?

Source: Understanding Client Ambitions – Hank Barnes

Equating IT Modernization to Business Innovation – Andrew White

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A McKinsey report this week titled, “Cloud Adoption to Accelerate IT Modernization”, tackles a topic I have been keen to explore with clients in the last couple of years: What is the value of cloud computing to business?  In my most recent bloc, How to Talk Cloud to Business leaders, I noted that different parts of cloud offer different value to different stakeholders.  In that blog I noted the following:

Source: Equating IT Modernization to Business Innovation – Andrew White

New Predictions, Vendor and Market Guides

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Tech Go-to-Market Predictions, ABM Vendor Guide, DCMS Market Guide

Source: New Predictions, Vendor and Market Guides

SMBs are Spending Big on IT! Are They Spending Right? – Anthony Bradley | Gartner

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Sometimes it seems like the prevailing thinking is that small and medium sized businesses don’t have the desire or money to invest in information technology. Perhaps it used to be that way. It isn’t anymore. SMB leaders are more and more recognizing that information technology is either an opportunity for competitive advantage or a threat. There is no in-between. Technology isn’t neutral to SMB competitiveness. SMBs must invest in IT to compete effectively against evolving larger businesses. But another important set of competitors are new SMBs that position technology as core to their differentiated value. It is good to see that spending stats are reflecting the importance of IT to SMB success.

Source: SMBs are Spending Big on IT! Are They Spending Right? – Anthony Bradley

New Data and Analytics Research: Being Successful with AI and Data Integration RFP Template – Andrew White | Gartner

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My colleagues Mike Rollings and Thomas Oestreich just published The Fundamentals of AI Success for Data and Analytics Leaders. The wondrous stories of artificial intelligence may lure data and analytics leaders into projects that have unrealistic expectations, indefinite timelines and dubious business value. A better near-term route to value is capitalizing on human and machine symbiosis, …

Source: New Data and Analytics Research: Being Successful with AI and Data Integration RFP Template – Andrew White

Develop the Full Story-Then Shorten It – Hank Barnes | Gartner

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Frequently during discussions with clients, I hear a desire for “a catchy, short one-liner to describe us.”   Whether you call this a tag line or a USP or something else, the quest for brevity is a regular occurrence.   And there is nothing wrong with that.   Customers are overwhelmed with information and have …

Source: Develop the Full Story-Then Shorten It – Hank Barnes

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