Don’t push your luck
Now that I am back with ICT related stuff in uni, I want to continue my advocacy in using free and open source software to address the ICT needs of our institution. I have seen many ICT solutions nowadays who have migrated on using FOSS as part of their strategy to make their solutions/products stable yet inexpensive.
I remember one time, there’s a proposal submitted and I was tasked to evaluate it. To make it transparent (which is one of the ideals advocated by FOSS), I requested for a presentation from the proponent with members of different offices in our institution as audience who will help me evaluate their proposal (fair enough I believe, because they are the ones who will be greatly affected and who will use these solutions).
The presentation went through… not too bad… but I was expecting a different kind of presentation from them. Not a good strategy for the proponent to deploy the lead developer for the solution they are providing. Why? Because he presented the very technical specifications of their solution in another context. It would have been presented in a way that decision makers of our institution can digest what they can provide and what they are planning to provide to us and not present what they have done in other institutions which is very much different from our processes.
Then Q&A came… almost all representatives of the offices invited shared their perceptions of what has been presented… as usual they are asking too much… but why? Because what they are looking for is not present in the presentation… the solution that they want to see is not their… And that is precisely the reason why they are just turning around because the one presented is not based in our context and is not the solution for our problem. Too bad… It would have been better if they hired a marketing expert who can package their solution in such a way that it will be more convincing rather than just showcasing what they did with their clients… What the H$%^& is going on… We don’t care about what you did with your clients… what we are concerned of is the solution for our problem and not the solution for their problem.
And what irritated me… WHAT??? When I asked if their solution can be used using MySQL rdbms. And what is their answer… their solution is not designed to work on MySQL because M$ (as they have claimed) is more stable and powerful and the problem with FOSS is there are limited number of people who can manage to do it (well, that’s your problem not ours because we have been using FOSS for years now). And it was just a matter of preference on what platform to use. So I pointed out that the reason why I asked is because we cannot afford to purchase the licenses that are required to run their solution (which is not included in their proposal). We want to minimize the cost without compromising quality of service. And I loudly said… “I’M SORRY BUT I BEG TO DISAGREE”. I cannot accept what you claimed that proprietary systems are more stable compared to FOSS and it’s just a matter of preference of the developer. Are we the client? or you are the one who is imposing to us to use your solution when in fact there are better ways to do it, and that is through FOSS. Wrong move… you want to get a client? be dynamic and learn to adjust and address your clients’ needs and DO NOT IMPOSE on what platform to use if you are not sure about it. In the end, the presentor showed a program they developed using MySQL is their DBMS. What the $%^&* that’s precisely what I am asking for… and still you uttered many reasons that cannot be digested or even swallowed by your probable client.
