On 11/24/2011 11:58, Jonathon Exley wrote:
That's the problem - as a propellorhead I don't make the purchasing decisions. I can recommend products but low cost speaks more loudly than "this gear is a dog to work with".
That's where you get a chance to impress the business folks by using terms like "total cost of ownership." You make the case that while product X may have a higher capex, that's a one-time expense that can be amortized and/or depreciated. Whereas the opex for product Y is going to be higher for the life of the thing. Make sure to tart up your estimate by including the developer costs of the tools you will need to verify that changes are correct and/or disaster recovery because everyone is human, and the horrible UI magnifies the likelihood of an "innocent" fat-finger mistake turning into a complete meltdown (or worse, a security hole that no one sees until it's too late). Of course I'm just throwing stuff against the wall here since I don't know exactly what tools you're talking about, but if your PHBs have any clue at all they will understand your point if you can put it into their language. Look at it this way. Think of how hard you have to fight the urge to wince in pain when one of your PHBs start describing the wonders of some new technological marvel ... "We simply must have this new widget I read about in AAdvantage magazine." That's exactly how they feel most of the time when we try to talk to them about why product Y is "better" even though it's more expensive. hth, Doug -- "We could put the whole Internet into a book." "Too practical." Breadth of IT experience, and depth of knowledge in the DNS. Yours for the right price. :) http://SupersetSolutions.com/