If you're going to entertain the manufacturer's 'consultant', then you should be fair and open up the request to other vendor's equipment and their 'consultants' too.
In my freelance consulting, I try very hard to never, never sell hardware unless the client has an urgent need and no other avenue, that way I can remain vendor neutral even if I do have my personal favorites. Erik Goldoff IT Consultant Systems, Networks, & Security ' Security is an ongoing process, not a one time event ! ' -----Original Message----- From: John Aldrich [mailto:jaldr...@blueridgecarpet.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 1:50 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Consultants I got a call from an IBM reseller in the region wanting to sell me a SAN. I advised that I had decided to step back and look for a consultant to help me figure out what my needs are. At that point the sales droid advised that they were also consultants. My first instinct is to tell them to go jump, as it seems like it would be a huge conflict of interest and they are probably going to tell me I need to buy a SAN, specifically an IBM SAN. What is the opinion of you folks on the list about hiring consultants? Do you worry about conflict of interest such as this or do you just hire someone? I'm tempted to just hire one of the fellow list members (assuming I can get authorization) who offered their services, as they seem to be *just* D/R consultants and are not going to have an axe to grind. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
