I have to agree, bringing people out for dinner cannot be considered bribery. I am in a non-tech distribution company and it is the way business is done. take them to dinner, play golf with them etc. its a great way to listen to what they need and you can discuss you solutions to them in those areas without being hassled. It cannot be considered bribery, what you are simply trying to do is to get their time. And in this article, it seems that Linux did not take its time to talk to the client. MS won this fairly. It simply means open source advocates need to work harder. Following this story, there is a need for better after sales service. Thats how MS won this.
Charles On 8/15/05, Mark Harrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Lars D. Noodén" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "OOo Marketing" <dev@marketing.openoffice.org> > Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2005 12:44 PM > Subject: Re: [Marketing] [Fwd: [newsletter] MS lochs down Scots Police deal] > > > > Before it was a lobbying organization / political movement, MS was first > > and foremost a marketing company and still retains that expertise. So I'd > > expect that there was a fair amount of evening meetings involving > > all-expenses paid lavish dinners with MS representatives each and every > > evening preceding a meeting. > > Lars, > > Remember that they won this from a StarOffice customer - it would be > interesting to compare the track records of MS and Sun in the matter of > corporate entertainment. > > In a previous role, where I was on the "end client" side, I have been > "shmoosed" be Sun on numerous occassions - they are not averse to the > "lavish dinner" in any sense. As a client, it was a very useful opportunity > to talk to them and explain what we were looking for. Every business case > I've ever written for a technology strategy has been based around total cost > / total value of ownership, and subject to rigorous strategy from the non-IT > parts of the business. This idea that "IT Directors" have a carte blanche to > recommend whoever buys the best dinner is completely out of touch. If > nothing else, every organisation I've ever worked for has a strict policy > that corporate hospitality must be declared, so everyone KNOWS who's been > taking the IT Director out to dinner/rugby/opera/whatever. > > Now I'm a consultant, my own expense account is not short of expensive > restaurants as I sell OpenSource solutions! Is it bribery - NO! Does it give > me a far better opportunity to LISTEN to my customers and work out what kind > of pitch would be succesful - hell yes! You get far more over dinner than > you do in a month's worth of weekly one-hour meetings. > > One of my personal bugbears, by the way, is the subsection of the OpenSource > community who go around assuming that every Microsoft gain must be due to > underhand tactics. I've bought (and sold) MS solutions many times, and > bought (and sold) OpenSource solutions many times - each has a place - and > the key to sales is understanding the individual customers requirement, not > trying to beat them over the head with rhetoric. > > > Aren't there any privacy laws in the UK? The MS EULAs for 2000 SP3 and XP > > SP1 grant admin rights to MS. That's a back door by any other name and > > given MS' track record on security, it's accessible to more than just MS. > > Are you seriously under the impression that big companies take Windows PCs > and stick them on the Internet? Any large scale rollout of ANY platform > involves a defence-in-depth security strategy that assumes that ANY product > has weaknesses, whether it's MS, Sun, IBM, or Linux. > > John McCreesh has already posted an intelligent and informed analysis of why > this contract might have gone to MS. > > I'm sorry if this has come over as a rant, BUT the biggest criticism I hear > of the OpenSource movement among my corporate clients - people who could > change over tens of thousands of desktops if they wanted to - is that the > OpenSource movement is full of people who want them to buy because > "Microsoft is Evil", and aren't prepared to have a discussion about the > business requirements they have beyond the perceived need that they have a > moral responsiblity to "fight evil"! > > I kid you not, the people I deal with use phrases like "I don't want to have > a religious debate", because of how the some in the OpenSource community > tend to portray the alternatives. > > Mark > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
