Ass-covers…

Long busy week, so sorry for lack of posts.

This however annoyed me this week. A mail from someone in my organisation who is trying to get some software sold. The techies and business guys have spent a long time reviewing the software, spoken to other customers, done a proof of concept and everyone wants it, however the purchase needs to ratified by the ‘governance board’ Here is the comment from the company we are talking to:

“2 of the Governance Board are very ‘into’ Gartner’s views and our champions will be asked for Gartner info on you. Please see the comment from our sponsor below:

With regards to the Gartner information, it is important I have the information to hand, in case it is raised during the presentation. If I do not have the information when questioned, I will have to admit that I had requested it from you, on more than one occasion, and nothing was delivered. This is not a situation that would be particularly comfortable for me, or you.

I’m sure you’ll all agree this is a ridiculous situation for us to be in.

They need Gartner information on:

1. Your company (generic would be OK)

2. Products”

_____________________________________________________

Why on earth are they paying all these experienced in-house people and external consultants to test and evaluate software, companies and relationships if after many months of testing and investment it’s going to come down to the opinion of one guy from Gartner who maybe read some stuff on our website and didn’t speak to any of our other customers?

How did we get to this?

Will Gartner give them a refund or accept liability if the decision is wrong?

It used to be ‘you’ll never get fired for buying blue’, has it now become ‘you’ll never get fired if Gartner say it’s OK’?