I've got a serious political problem...

[MDdan]

Consider that how you handle this as a company will get around to other customers and potential customers. If you make a habit of unscrupulous dealing, it will get around. This is not the only contract, and you guys have to stay true to what you're about. Of course, if you're into sticking it to people, then have at it. j/k

I think DVNT1 is right on the money, focus on your issues with their request, don't try to tell them what their internal needs are. If you paint the issue in terms of the concerns that your company has about working with the product, then they won't be as likely to be defensive.

You don't have to dive into their internal issues and battles....stay as far away as possible from doing that.


Shahani said:

No matter what, if you are "seen" as a fair and straightforward person, you win in the long run.

You may not win with everyone, but you'll win with the customers you want to deal with.

Good luck Cadd

[Knothead]

Okay, Cadd, I'm pessimistic about this now.
(fair warning! )

They don't trust their own staff to have either the knowledge, or to have the company's best interests in mind.

The analogy of the Titanic is sounding clearer all the time in this case...The Captain(s) is disbelieving of the crew's reports of a massive iceberg off the port bow...and from what you yourself have said, the crew doesn't want to upset the Captain in the first place, so they're not reporting it.

The ship here is so big, (this was a major part of its attractiveness) that it cannot change a set course the way a smaller, leaner craft could and would.

You say your company would survive without these guys?

I'll bet if the passengers on the Titanic had knowledge of what was going to befall them...oh well. Just my $.02...

P.S., I loved the analogy of cutting dovetails with a chainsaw...

[newbie~wan]

First of all, I want to thank you for sharing this experience. It is an invaluable example of "corporate america" at its best. Very good for our younger members.

I recommend taking MDdan's advice.
I think it offers the best comprimise of "go at 'em w/ guns blazin!!" and "lie to them like another brown nosing a$$ kisser"

These guys apparently don't listen to what their own staff is telling them. They don't trust their own staff to have either the knowledge, or to have the company's best interests in mind.

I feel ya on this one cadd, I'm experiecing the exact same thing at work right now.

Definitely document your position on this so that when/if people go "scrambling for lifevests" - yours is reserved. I hate to sound like an Enron president, but it's not your fault if idiots won't listen to your enlightened, and hence superior, opinion.

[MDdan]

Originally posted by newbie~wan
First of all, I want to thank you for sharing this experience. It is an invaluable example of "corporate america" at its best. Very good for our younger members.

Heck, I'm an old man compaired to many around here (30 years old...pretty scary) but I've learned from this thread.

Lesson Learned: Do NOT go into management.

You'll have to excuse me now, I'm going to go practice acting technical.

Once again, best of luck with your decision Cadd, it's alot easier to be telling you what to do than it is to be the one doing it.

[caddmannq]

One nice thing about a small company: face time with the CEO and CFO is a given. Actually, everybody takes their coffee breaks in my "domain" as it is actually the largest office.

So...judging by today's conversation..."We ain't gonna do that." How we proceede from here is undetermined, but we're all on the same page here.

Wahoo! (I think.)

The other nice thing is that we think alike on many subjects. Unnecessary risk-taking and undue burdens are discouraged.

Money is not God here.

So we'll never be Enron, but OTOH we'll never be Enron.


Thanks to all the respondents,
CaddmannQ

[MDdan]

Hey, glad to hear it Cadd.

Too bad about not being an Enron though, I hear they're a really hot stock. Of course, I don't follow the markets too closely.

[Warthog]

I wish I'd had the opportunities to peek into these matters when I was your age. It might have saved me many errors over the years. Take note, my friend.

Hmm....duly noted.

[NeoStarO1]

Originally posted by Orbiter
If you are worried that the messenger who might get killed is you. I would document all of your concerns and recomendations, and officially submit them to your boss, so that in the event that things take a turn for the worse you have some proof that you had warned them (after all, crap always rolls downhill).

I'd like to add one more to this. Also be sure to keep a second copy of all your correspondence and memo's and such and put them in a safe place incase you need them later. Get a personal safe deposit box somewhere no one knows so if you need copies later you can obtain copies of your copies. Just don't let the boss or anyone else for that matter know you do this.

Sounds like a damm diffucult position you are in. I am sorry you have to go through such nastiness.

Is this a software they designed or what? Or one they purschase and you are required to use or not?

NeoStar

[Richard Cranium]

Cadd;

What about a "Mass Mailing" to everyone who is anybody from the top to the bottom.

Professional envelopes complete with legit return addys.

One or more is bound to get through.

A serious gripe of mine;
Wasting company resources. This is a burden on everyone.

On another note, my biggest complaint is "Inventory Tax"
Think about it. If I cannot afford to store an item for 4+ years cuz the tax exceeds the cost of the product, then I cannot buy it from you.
You and your supplier cannot afford to stock items "in case" because you're wasting 23% yearly in Inventory Tax(State of Ga)

This is trickle down inflation at it's best.

Whoever came up with this idea must have been brain damaged, or they said, HEY I Hate the USA, lets screw up the system.. What maggots !

Where I work we had $14,000,000.00 in stock items. The judgement was sent "Down" that any item that had not moved in 4 years was to be discarded.
YEAH, thrown away. The stuff we have is "Site-Specific" made for usage here only.

So, we trashed almost $9 Million Dollars of inventory. Freaking Great !

[Tomteriffic]

Cadd:

I've watched this thread with great interest, as I'm in a similar, but not identical position, and the software in question is internal, rather than external.

Our firm, the largest of it's kind in our part of the state, has just become a "franchisee" of sorts to a larger, nationwide organization. The benefits to the company, the organization, and our client base are enormous. However, the corporate-wide software which helps us do our research and prepare the report products which we ultimately deliver to are clients, is, in short, a living nightmare. The productivity drain that this stuff imposes is so horrendous, that, to use it is to cut your own pay down to the point where you'd do better by asking if you want fries with that burger.

By most corporate standards, we are a very small company, (ours is a highly specialized business) and our "IT Department" is one guy, and it's not me. I'm known, though as the biggest computer geek in the place, short of the IT guy. I've made my concerns known to him, and even to the COO. A couple of other employees have test driven the software and pretty much given up their personal lives for two weeks trying to complete a project that should have taken 3 or 4 days.

The IT guy has pretty much determined, through arduous conversations with the software developers, digging around in your system, etc., that this hideously expensive software package will not run in our recently (expensively) upgraded hardware and software environment.

Yet, the home office is becoming incresingly strident in its demands that we deliver a product produced on that software. I for one, have refused to use it, stating simply that I can't afford it. The upshot of that is that I get cut out of some of the potentially "Big Bucks" assignments. I value my time too much.

I'm wondering when it's time for my company to start banging heads with this nationwide umbrella we operate under, and demand that the product either work efficiently and improve our productivity, or give us our money back.

Different business, slightly different scenario, but people are starting to poke their heads around my office door and ask me my opinion. One of thes days it's gonna be the CEO, and I know what I gotta tell him. Even at half price, a Mercedes with warped heads and a cracked block is still a lousy deal.