Everyone is a vendor - what are you selling?

We’re All Selling Something

I’ve always been a vendor blogger, and so have you. It took me a long time to come to terms with this, but nearly everybody is a vendor of one sort or another: Regardless of whether you deliver results to your employer, sell your own services, or push a product, we’re all selling something.

I’ve been delivering enterprise IT consulting for a living for almost 15 years now. It’s easy to pretend that human services like consulting are somehow more pure than the “box pushers”, but this is simply not the case. Even internal end-user employees are trying to keep themselves employed, and the most effective way to do this is to promote their company and themselves.

It’s not a black and white scale. If we are all selling ourselves and our employers,then we are all vendors to greater or lesser extents. We all have our axes to grind, our prejudices to expose, and only our experience to draw on. So no one is perfectly credible and no one is perfectly tainted.

I’ve long labored to maintain my credibility and independence, even as I have moved from an IT outsourcer (Sprint Paranet) to a storage service provider (StorageNetworks) to strategic consulting companies (GlassHouse Technologies and Contoural) to a cloud storage provider (Nirvanix). I’ve always remained separate from any product focus, but I’ve always been part of the sales and delivery process for consulting services.

Get Out Of Jail Free?

The fact that it’s all shades of gray does not mean, however, that we are free to twist the facts with impunity or that we should object when others pass judgement on our motivations. Quite the opposite: If we are all vendors, we all had better be careful what our actions say about us!

This is the most important lesson I have learned about blogging: Credibility is our currency, and no one has yet offered me enough reward to sacrifice mine. Can I be bought? Well, in the words of Jayne Cobb, “that’ll be an interesting day!”

Because I recognize the importance of credibility, I try to keep a level head and maintain a respectable persona. This means avoiding personality-driven battles and engaging in accptable business practices I would be proud for the world to know. This isn’t always easy: As your personal profile rises, there will be outside pressure (or inside temptation) to leverage it. Our shared challenge is to keep level heads.

The Messenger Matters

One inescapable fact remains: Employees of companies known for FUD are held to a higher standard of scrutiny. No matter how personally responsible and credible you are, if you work for a marketing-driven product vendor, you will be under the microscope.

Comments that would be considered innocuous or even respectably aloof from an “independent” might seem like mud slinging from a vendor employee. Imagine reading blog posts or tweets from an end user criticizing the products of Microsoft and IBM. If the exact same statements were made by employees of EMC or HP, wouldn’t they be seen in a different light? The message is the same, but the messenger matters.

I have personally experienced the doors that close when moving from a consulting company to a managed service provider. Certain publications and event organizers have strict rules denying “vendors” the right to participate; others have no such restrictions. I was sad to say goodbye to TechTarget after 5 years, but I respect their rules. Happily, as their door closed, others opened and I was able to write and present more last year than any year previous!

If you enjoyed reading this, you’ll probably also like my Foskett Services blog!

My Approach

My new role at Nirvanix explicitly allowed me to continue my personal social media presence, including organizing Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day. Management saw that my reputation was a benefit to the company and trusted I would remain objective and keep my work and non-work roles separated.

I’ve endeavored to do just that, launching a new blog, Enterprise Storage Strategies, specifically for cloud storage strategy and restricted crossover between the two domains. In the interest of objectivity, I’ve also “recused” myself from discussions of cloud storage on the Gestalt IT web site and at Tech Field Day.

I don’t want to say that this is the correct approach for everyone, but it’s worked well for me. What do you think? How can vendor bloggers remain credible in the increasingly social world?

Hot dog cart image by rollingrck

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | What I’ve Learned From Vendor Blogging
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

• What: Is There a Real ROI for E-mail Archiving: Building a Business Case
• When: Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific
• Sponsored By: Google Security Services Events & Webinars

In a difficult financial environment, organizations are scrutinizing IT expenditures. Only those projects with a proven return on investment (ROI) are receiving funding. Those looking at e-mail archiving need to ask if there is an ROI for their company, and how can these cost savings be justified. What really does and does not save companies money for e-mail archiving may surprise you. The webcast will cover:

• Four critical factors driving ROI – what to look at and what not
• Actual ROI case studies
• Strategies for building a business case

You’ll hear from Stephen Foskett, Director of the Data Practice at Contoural Inc., a leading independent provider of business and technology consulting. Drawing upon the experiences of hundreds of large and small companies, Stephen will focus on the nuts and bolts of building an ROI and business. Any organization considering an e-mail archiving system will need to face these issues.

Register and attend for free online!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Is There A Real ROI For Email Archiving?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Register online at Contoural’s web site!

E-mail Archiving 101: A Non-Technical Person’s Overview of How E-mail Archiving Works and How to Pick the Right Tool
Thursday, January 8, 2009
10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Faculty: Independent expert Stephen Foskett, Principal Consultant, Contoural, Inc.

E-mail archiving systems are becoming an important component of many organization document retention and litigation preparedness strategy. Nevertheless, to the non-technical person, understanding what these systems do and how they are different can be bewildering or even downright confusing. A good idea sometimes gets lost in technical translation. In this webinar, industry expert and independent Contoural Principal Consultant Stephen Foskett will walk through a high-level overview of how these systems work in simple terms aimed at the non-technical person.

Topics include:

• What do e-mail archiving products do and how do they support litigation readiness?
• High-level description of how different products work and are used
• What are some of the real differences between systems?
• How to evaluate which features are best for your organization

This webinar will also provide time for questions from the audience.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Email Archiving 101 Webinar, January 8
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

So how will you make your choice?  I previously talked about the essential differentiators, and now I’ve refined these into a more complete list I’m calling “The Eleven Essential Elements of Email Archiving”.  I capitalize this because it is the basis for much of my recent writing and speaking:  I just wrapped up an article for Storage magazine on the subject, to be published next month, and spoke on the topic at Storage Decisions in Chicago.

If you missed the show last week (or really really liked it!) and can’t wait for the magazine, may I suggest tuning in tomorrow for TechTarget’s Email and File Archiving Virtual Seminar?  You can catch my session at 1:30 Eastern, with a live Q&A session following.  Or you can tune in at 9 AM for the whole day-long extravaganza, featuring sessions from other good folks from Contoural and elsewhere.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Email Archiving: Just Can’t Get Enough
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.