>>> Remind them what they hired you for. You are there for them, the vendor
>>> is there for making sells.
>> Good advice.
>>
>> The typical vendor cares much more about money and the "tail
>> light" warranty. You are responsible for the end to end
>> interface. If they don't trust you or allow you to present
>> independent solutions I got one word of advice. Fuck'em.
>>
>> Tell them to interface it with their own staff or someone
>> else. When you come in to clean up the mess double your
>> price. If you make more money at the same time the idiots
>> are eating crow it will be sweet. Remember, sometimes people
>> can be reasoned with. Sometimes they require being hit by a
>> 2X4 on the skull. Sometimes jobs are just not meant to be.
>>
>> If you are blinded by the big bucks in a contract don't
>> forget the job may be like screwing a skunk. It may take a
>> long time to wash off the smell. When you are in business
>> combined with many years of hard earned knowledge and
>> experience the most difficult thing you will learn is one
>> word. NO.
>>
>> I would go ahead and develop on paper YOUR solutions. If
>> they continue to be idiots and you cut them lose at least
>> the experience of the situation will recover some of the
>> money and time lost. Keep the solution in your records in
>> case the same type issue comes up again.
>>
>> That is what I would do
Phil
I have met people who could sell an Eskimo a snowball but
were clueless when it came to high technology
I have been in the technology business for 30 years.
Starting with the military and then college and then
Government and then private industry and back to Government
and now my own business.
The most rewarding but most difficult of all is running your
own business. It was quite a while before I learned how to
say no and filter through the BS and incompetency.
There really are three types of people in the high
technology business. You got your bean counters/managers who
know money but know nothing about technology. Then you have
the soda straw engineers that are experts in their "area"
but are clueless about the "Big picture" and making it all work
Then you have the high tech people or geeks some call us
consultants who see it all from the end to end or global
perspective. They focus on solving problems and speak in
terms of project and solutions rather than money and egos.
Throwing money at a problem is not a solution but neither is
allowing bean counters/managers or egomaniacs to overrule
technical solutions (See space shuttle challenger for the
worst case study of managers and bean counters overruling
the experts)
Your situation appears like a young company with a Gizmo
they want to sell and another company that needs the Gizmo
they are selling and your job is to get all the gizmo's
working and talking to each other.
If company A and company B won't allow YOU to make it work
then you are dealing with a bad situation unless they back
off and allow you to do what they hired you for. All you can
do is develop the solutions and present them. If they won't
bite their loss.
You got to establish real quick who is in charge of the big
picture or the other people involved will place you into a
dog chasing it's tail situation or better known as a goat rope.
All successful projects must have a person who understands
the God's eye view of the entire project. It's a must. That
is what a good technology consultants do they tie it all
together at minimum cost and down time.
Good luck
JA Johnson
Senior Technology Consultant
Quantum Technology Solutions
quantumtechnologysolutions@
charter.net
http://www.qtscomputersupport.com/
423-202-7363
