Richardson says building a partnership also requires work from him and his team, such as a willingness to schedule regular meetings, share quarterly business reviews, and discuss planned updates to the vendor’s products and services.
He notes that both sides also need to be open about where work is needed in the partnership. “We know the sky isn’t always blue, so [we talk about] the places where we need to intervene,” he says.
Like other CIOs, Richardville has seen the strong ROI of all this work.
He points to the partnership he built with one vendor, which he first hired during the COVID pandemic to automate communication and scheduling with people waiting for vaccines. The company built a voice bot within days and then worked with IT leaders to understand and solve other pain points.
“They were able to take the best of services they were offering and chat with us, and the partnership naturally evolved from there,” Richardville says. “Now we share in each other’s successes and we share in each other’s learnings.”
