Is that contract worth it?

     In today’s competitive market there is always a feeding frenzy that circles around many good contracts. This of course leads to bidding wars and not unintentionally either. Big businesses like this type of behaviour because it drives the cost for them down dramatically.

     However from my limited perspective when I see this vulture feeding session, I cannot help but feel like the customer is losing. If companies have to undercut the price down far enough to get the job then there unfortunately going to need to recover that cost from somewhere. Usually this will occur by rushing a job to completion in much less time then is required to ensure a proper job. These tight margins mean the job that was widdled down in price is now done incorrectly. Shortcuts were taken and less visible items were not done. 

     Now depending on what this job is that may not matter that much. Lets now pretend its something core to your business like your firewall. That piece of hardware your relying on to keep your data safe. Well sure you now have a firewall and it may be a top of line brand name firewall like Fortigate. Capable of protecting you like no other but there is a problem. Just because you have a state of the art firewall does not necessarily mean its actually doing anything. Maybe it has been setup just enough to pass through traffic with a handful of rules to make it look good but all those extra features you pay for in your annual service agreement are not being configured and used. The reason is not enough time and money in the budget for the job to be done properly.

     I guess in my mind I would rather not take those jobs because I would not want my company reputation based on that type of work. I would rather do 10 jobs really well then 50 thrown together ones. This method of work may seem like a good idea today. However I can assure you it only takes one data breach on that firewall you setup to ruin your reputation and leave you looking like the trunk slammers who give IT a bad name. Your reputation will land you the right jobs for your business without playing the price wars.

Always challenge your mind!