Re: question about product license and support

From: Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 22:27:30 -0700
Message-ID: <1091856488.907175@yasure>

Hans Forbrich wrote:

> Daniel Morgan wrote:
>
>

>>I'm not advocating not looking up the price at store.oracle.com. I'm
>>saying don't give that price to management as it is at best ...the
>>highest price you could possibly pay ... perhaps by a very wide margin.
>>

>
>
> So you advocate hiding facts from management in the hope that 'your'
> negotiation skills are better than the sales rep's?
>
> I'd think management should hear "list price is $x, published standard
> discount is y%. We need to use those for budget and attempt to negotiate
> for better terms."
>
> Or better "the reason is the product includes these other capabilities, so
> we don't need to buy product S from this other company saving $z."
>
> Over the past 8 years, in EVERY company with which I've interacted where
> management was not made aware of the list price, they have made follow up
> decisions assuming the discount price holds for all purchases. In EACH AND
> EVERY CASE, the tech/PM/engineer who set up the project has ended up being
> fired for being wildly out-of-budget. That's 100% 'hit rate'.
>
> Management needs facts to manage - not pipe dreams.
>
> Developers and engineers need to learn how to evaluate product based
> capability rather than price or name.
>
> /Hans

I never advocate hiding anything from management. Neither do I advocate being lazy and giving them information that is not accurate.

A developer or DBA should not try to replace their purchasing agent and negotiate a contract. But they can certainly trouble the salesperson for a trip to their organization and a 15 minute discussion about licensing, their needs, support requirements, and get a more realistic price from which management can make a decision.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

Received on Sat Aug 07 2004 - 00:27:30 CDT