Re: Once bitten
We made it a policy to explain this explicitly to our vendors when pricing new systems. We worked on the theory that everyone builds some discount into their pricing so why not give us that discount up front along with clearly delineated support terms and licensing costs. Quite often if we had a preferred vendor ( not because of the sales droids, because of the the gurus in their support department) then we would let them know what price we expected to pay.
Once had a Telco come in and try to do a snow job on us. $10k + per month in phone charges made us an attractive target for cold callers and 2nd tier telcos. Sales droid wheeled in State and Country managers, who proceeded to try the hard sell on my boss. ie" if you sign today we can offer xyz but deal will not be available later". He called their bluff and told them to bugger off. Sales droid then tried to go to executive chairman, who conferenced in my boss. Would love to have been a fly on the wall when the sales droid got told in no uncertain terms never to come back.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
