Office politics (was Re: Case Sensitivity & @bk)

[GCC Consulting]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com 
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com] On Behalf 
> Of Bill Vermillion
> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 9:26 PM
> To: filePro List
> Subject: Re: Office politics (was Re: Case Sensitivity & @bk)
> 
> On or about Wed, Jul 21 21:16 , while attempting a 
> Zarathustra emulation Kenneth Brody thus spake: 
> 
> > GCC Consulting wrote:
> > [...]
> > > When he asks how long it will take to get a modification 
> done, he is 
> > > told it would be submitted, considered, and if they agree 
> and analysis will be done.
> > > Then they will get back with a price.  Once the contract has been 
> > > signed, it may take up to 2 months to start the project.  
> He asks, 
> > > "what if I need a new report".  They tell him 4-6 weeks.
> > > 
> > > Now, the sales manager for this company is someone who I 
> worked with years ago.
> > > My client tells him, "Richard does the report for me 
> right away.  I 
> > > get some modifications with a few days and others with the month.
> > [...]
> > 
> > That reminds me of a story...
> > 
> > Large company has its own DP department.  They need some 
> new reports 
> > for their medical claims software.  DP department says they 
> can get to 
> > it in a few months.  A filePro developer, working for the same 
> > company, takes the specs home and codes it single-handedly 
> over the weekend in filePro.
> > He offers it to the company at no cost, in an attempt to show them 
> > just how powerful filePro is.  They decline, so as to not 
> upset their DP dept.
> > He suggests using it only as an interim solution until DP can get 
> > around to their request for the new reports.  Again, no dice.  
> > Apparently, the DP department was already pissed that some 
> people at 
> > the company were using filePro and doing things themselves, rather 
> > than waiting on bended knee for them to get around to it.
> 
> Sounds exactly like a place I did work for.  First the ID 
> department wanted to get rid of 'all those Unix machines'.
> 
> Then the new department said "Everything shall be MS".
> 
> I was still maintaing some FP on a Novell network and the ID
> department called me over.   They couldn't get their new SUN
> operating properly nor get sendmail configured.  The found they
> needed Unix to handle their web servers properly.   They were still
> using an old SCO ODT 3 that  I set up as the mail gateway to 
> the internet that delivered mail to their OS/2 mail server, that
> distributed mail to the Novell systems.   And some of their
> networks would route through the same machine twice :-(

Wrote a little app to track leased equipment and any contract they were on.

She was doing some consulting(non programming) for a friend at a nursing home.
They needed this type of program.

I demoed it for them and quoted them $3,500.00 for the program with the mods
that they needed (a favor for a good friend).

When IT got wind of this, they wanted it in Access.  I said OK but you'll loose
some functionality.  Gave then a price of $21,000. to re-write the app.  The
said fine.  Then reconsidered and said they would do it in-house.  That Was 5
years ago and they still don't have the app.

Richard Kreiss
GCC Consulting