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Midmarket CIOs don't have the kind of purchasing clout -- or access -- associated with their counterparts at larger, richer companies, but that doesn't mean they should sit idly by and take what vendors hand them. Just ask Ron Crall, the CIO of St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Maine. Crall says it behooves midmarket CIOs to participate in user groups as much as possible. "My task is to have a leadership role and plot where we are going," Crall says. "Having close ties to our key vendors gives me the insight to know in advance where we want to position ourselves."
St. Joseph relies on three main vendors: Siemens for its core hospital information system, Microsoft for desktop productivity applications and Citrix
for software deployment. Crall takes an active and high-profile role in each vendor's various user communities, which in turn gives him access to high-level vendor representatives.
The $80-million hospital is also a beta customer for its main vendors. "If we have any issues, we deal directly with the product development team and we get resolution within hours," Crall says. "Your problems are resolved at the highest level." A CIO can't ask for more than that.
Megan Santosus, a former senior editor at CIO Decisions, is now a features editor for SearchDataCenter.com. Write to her at msantosus@techtarget.com.
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