Partnering With the CIO: The Future of IT Sales Seen Through the Eyes of Key Decision Makers

“We’re Not Bending”

Meet William J. Sweeney, managing director of global risk, compliance, and legal technology for the corporate investment bank at Citigroup. He’s responsible for the technology used by the bank to manage all of its market risk, credit risk, and operational risk.

He’s also responsible for the technology that supports the bank’s global compliance and legal operations, including case management, document management, electronic discovery, and e-mail supervision. In his spare time, he says with grim humor, he also is responsible for co-managing the bank’s Basel compliance program.

With those kinds of responsibilities on his shoulders, Sweeney can be excused for taking a hard line on IT governance. “I expect an IT vendor to be familiar with our IT governance process,” he says. “When a sales rep comes in to meet me, the first thing I tell him is that he’d better understand our governance process because we’re not bending.”

Some IT sales reps try to go around Sweeney or avoid him altogether. That’s a short-sighted strategy, he says. “Always start with the person in charge of the technology you’re selling,” he advises. “That person can help you get into procurement, standards, engineering, information security—all those different parts of the organization that must eventually participate in a purchasing decision. A smart vendor, says Sweeney, understands the value of building relationships with the IT managers who are ultimately responsible for making sure that the technology ...