(Serious enough to get me off the contest thread? Unfortunately so...)
One of our newest clients is also one of our biggest, and has (easily) the potential to become our biggest client by a wide margin. The work we have consulted on for them has been pretty high-profile stuff, plentiful, and rather profitible. So what's the problem?
Their senior management was sold a particular do-it-all software package, a couple years ago. They are going to urge (nay,
require) all their consultants to submit using this same software, in the very near future. What's the problem?
1. The package they use has daunting limitations, is expensive, and subjects us to extra work for no real return. This software has been called "Not ready for prime-time" by some very knowledgable folks. I've used it and I agree. It's advantages on a huge project might overweigh the disadvantages, but for their typical work, ($10~30 million projects) it's a waste: in fact, a burden.
2. They don't know how to use this software properly, as evidenced by the documents they supply to us. They are using it in a way that is actually detrimental to productivity and accuracy. Their senior management doesn't know that their big investment isn't working out as advertized, and nobody in the firm has apparently been able to tell them that!
3. We're going to have to work directly from their digital database. They will expect our work to be perfect (and we are liable for millions if it's not!) but the data they supply is never perfect. Not only is it not perfect, but it is cumbrsome, at best, to work from, and impossible to use directly, in the manner they soon will proscribe. I've tried it, and I know.
My boss does not want us to tell them the truth. The best we can probably do is shine them on until our current projects are delivered, and then bail. If we explain our reluctance to their management, their middle management is "exposed" by the fact that they have really been shining their bosses on about the efficacy and performance of their system and the performance of their staff.
They want to conference next week to discuss implimentation of their system to us, and evidently their senior management is jazzed up about how well it's worked for them. I can tell from what they send me that everyone there is pulling a snow-job on the boss.
But do
I want to be the one to point out the king's naked butt? No way, baby!
What to do? What to do?
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