Carsales.com CIO tells channel: "Don’t drop the ball"

Tell us about a recent project that required an external IT provider

Normally, Carsales builds more than it outsources but we clearly recognise the value of good vendors in several areas that are not core to our business. One good example of this is Akamai. When we initially started talking to Akamai, they had a reputation of being very expensive. However, when we looked deeper into what they offered, we saw considerable value beyond the traditional CDN (content delivery network) that Akamai is known for.

What was their input?

Akamai provided solution consulting, rather than selling, around how their products solved the various business issues facing us. They improved our site response times, provided additional security options, and gave us increased insight into the traffic that hits our site; they implemented all this at no more cost than we were already spending on the previous solution.

How can an IT supplier win your business?

Vendors need to be solution sellers who provide value to the business they are working with. They must take time to first understand the business and then recommend products accordingly. It’s not about fitting their product somehow into the business; it is about solving a business problem or need. On the other hand, I dislike it when resellers and integrators try to use fear as a tool to sell their product, especially when comparing themselves with the incumbents they are trying to replace.

Isn’t it all about price?

The right word is value. I like vendors who back their product and let me sign up month-by-month. If clients still stay on, it is clearly value that binds them to the vendor.

Can you point out any mistakes that IT service providers make?

This one is easy. Many drop the ball after the contract is signed, focusing on their next potential sale rather than supporting existing relationships.

How is the cloud affecting investments?

The cloud is definitely moving the focus away from hardware solutions to software solutions. We now think about how this product will scale in the cloud both up and down so we can maximise value of the product to our specific business needs.

Is your use of external IT companies increasing or decreasing?

There is no change to this, our key principle here is we seek partners where we don’t have key capability in-house or it would be too expensive to build in-house capability.

We do, however, limit the number of partners to a few strategic ones because this allows us to derive best value for both parties involved.