November 16, 2003 at 3:45 pm
I'm working with a vendor (Stockamp & Assoc.) We hired them for the Clinic Ontrac application and they highly customized it to work in our hospital. They left after implementing the software in 3 of our 46 clinics. As I add more clincs to the system I continuously run into issues. Stockamps response to the problems is : "The system was working fine when we left what have you done with it?"
I'm continually given contradictory solutions to problems, then being blamed for modifying their system.
What are others doing when working with vendors that assume this type of adversarial position?
November 17, 2003 at 12:23 pm
DOCUMENTATION!!! I dealt with a vendor who told us they could provide what we wanted. But then they kept saying...oh we are working on that...we'll let you try it as a beta. I documented what they claimed and what they produced. When I asked them for something, I did it in writing. Likewise, when they gave me information I got it in writing. Even if I had to send them an email saying 'I just want to confirm that this is what you said during our conversion.'
Documentation helps in lawsuits to recover lost money, cancellation of contracts, etc.
We finally used the documentation I had to cancel the contract and go with another vendor.
-SQLBill
November 21, 2003 at 2:36 pm
Agreed on this one... when I dealt with vendors in the Air Force we documented everything for this very reason. I mean everything... you would be surprised at how often the smallest detail makes all the difference. Also, go ahead and get your legal folks involved as well and they'll give you a lot of helpful advice on how to proceed.
K. Brian Kelley, GSEC
http://www.truthsolutions.com/
Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring
K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley
November 25, 2003 at 12:16 pm
Yes. I always made sure that all conversations were documented. It takes time but it is worth it. If I had a phone conversation I would follow-up with an e-mail that had the conversation and the proposed solution.
I would also document who you speak with every time you call the company. It sounds as if you are talking to several different people and they are offering off-the-cuff solutions. Request that you have a liaison with one person, usually a project manager, and only deal with him or her. Do not let them shuffle you off to the next free developer.
Also, if the person who answers your call continues with the "What have you done to my system." make sure that you send a copy of his remarks to the owner of the company. In these times any negative publicity is bad publicity.
Bonne chance
Dr. Peter Venkman: Generally you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance.
Patrick
Quand on parle du loup, on en voit la queue
November 26, 2003 at 2:09 am
Documentation is key if the supplier goes back on an agreement.
I had a situation where a product contains faults that need to be fixed. In my case it was a memory leak issue.
I pinned down an exact path that would generate the memory leak and the objects within the application that seemed to cause it.
Through pure professional courtesy we raised it privately with the supplier and got what can only be described as a hostile approach.
The supplier runs a developer discussion forum for their product as well and it is very noticeable that if anything remotely contentious crops up the discussion thread mysteriously vanishes.
Next service pack release there were 6 objects that had a "memory leak fixed" comment against them of which 5 were the ones that we had highlighted.
He was not wholly unware of the potential lack of insignificance.
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