Cutting Corners...

It's not something I'm willing to do. I have worked for some companies earlier in my career that shall remain nameless, and those particular organizations were perfectly fine with supporting horrible solutions they didn't even install themselves for the almighty dollar. I recall one client of one of these companies calling me every week screaming at me because his VoIP solution that was an "as seen on TV" magic jack, consistently failed all the time. No seriously, the company I worked for decided to support this ridiculous implementation to collect money from him every month, and we the support staff were stuck dealing with it every time it broke. We didn't even have access to their infrastructure, they were just making us google the fix, providing there even was one! Instead of the customer actually purchasing a reputable, reliable product for his business, he bought something he saw on TV around 2 am in the morning as a viable substitute for a 50+ office phone and fax solution. To this day I'm still surprised it even worked 10% of the time.

There's a reason IT professionals and consultants exist. It's so that their clients don't shoot themselves in the foot like the gentleman in the above story did. It's also to alleviate companies supporting a product they would never use themselves just to collect payment from a customer. There's a lot of unsavory practices out there and I didn't stay at that particular company very long as I felt it would reflect poorly on my integrity as a professional. Gilded Pendulum was cut from a different cloth and I'm not going to recommend rag tag solutions that are destined to fail my clients. I'm already saving them money through my network of solution providers simply by allowing me to facilitate their contracts and negotiations. If they want a solution that is extremely easy on their wallet but is going to constantly be down due to it's lackluster quality or infrastructure, I'm going to advise against it. Companies don't need to purchase top of the line, state-of-the-art products to stay in business, far from it. But they do need a solution that is going to work when they need it to. And monthly it's really just a little bit more to implement something reliable instead of a fly-by-night company's solution to your needs. In today's digital landscape, businesses are built and destroyed by the choices they make. Your customers can fire everyone in your company, from the CEO on down, by simply choosing to shop elsewhere. Sam Walton said that and it's even more true today. It's not worth making the same mistakes as so many others, (I've seen it happen a lot) and I promise to keep your business moving forward the right way at a great price. You've got enough headaches to deal with, don't let your technology be one of them.