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I'm contractor for one of the wealthiest companies in the country. They have enough money to buy best in class software from biggest names in the industry.
2 out of 3 internal departments ( Eng. and Utility departments ) that I've worked with, know me and trust in my software. Now I'm going to introduce myself to the 3rd and most important department ( Maintenance Dep. ). Generally speaking, Management and engineers in this department go for the big names and don't waste their time and money on unknown vendors.
I'm brave enough to host them in a meeting in coming months. I'm thinking about the ways I can assure them about my software. Management and Engineers from the first 2 departments have told me, If they are asked, will talk in favor of me. Literally, this is the only chance I have.
Please share your thoughts, hints and suggestions for the meeting.
Thanks
Behzad
Behzad
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...ok so u sold to two dept and want the third dept to buy... possibly they should do a pilot and evaluate and come to a decision and then
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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Behzad Sedighzadeh wrote: Management and Engineers from the first 2 departments have told me, If they are asked, will talk in favor of me.
Having departments A and B vouch for you is your best chance, IMO, to get your foot in the door and cut through corporate red tape. Department C knows you're known and trusted by someone else internally. You can't ask for a better position to be in.
All I can add is, good luck.
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In an ideal world you could just present something and they would be able to see what you can do from that.
But it isn't ideal. So politics are better.
Call the two depts that know you A/B.
And the one that doesn't C.
What you want is the following
1. Someone in A/B that is known to be technically proficient by someone of significance in C.
2. Someone in A/B that is known as an excellent manager by someone of significance in C.
Then you have that person talk to the person in C.
Of course better if you have more than one person that can do this.
Also you would want to make sure that the person (or persons) does not have any 'issues' with someone else in C. Doesn't matter if they have a good rep with one person in C but also has a bad rep with someone else. That second person would then end up fighting against without even knowing anything about you.
What does 'significance' mean?
1. A senior level engineer who is respected.
2. A manager at the tech level who is respected. You don't want something like a VP because then the tech side will probably look down upon the reference. But then the might force the decision and you could prove yourself over time.
3. Even to some extent someone that is just popular.
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Behzad Sedighzadeh wrote: Please share your thoughts, hints and suggestions for the meeting.
You ever notice that the more expensive a product is, the less you see the price on the site? It's always call us. It'll be business speak because the business doesn't care about or even understand the tech speak -- and then contact us for sales.
Ever wonder why that is?
It's because the business side doesn't give two flips about the tech. What they care about is reliability, the cost, and what happens if something goes wrong. That's probably why they prefer big name vendors, you can trust they are reliable. A no name has no guarantee of quality or assurance. They never will.
For instance, open source software is free and pretty good tech. Business doesn't care at all. Not unless they save millions and can hire someone to deal with it. For average stuff, they won't care two flips. They have the money; what they need is a solution they can trust.
Which is to say, when you're going into sell this thing. Yes, talk about the software. But remember, you're selling YOU... not the software. If they trust you and/or your team you have a chance. If they don't, nothing you say about the software will make a difference - ever.
Also, don't get cheesy when you're selling yourself. Just be genuinely friendly. Don't try and sell them. Just be their friend and honest. If there's a shortcoming with your offer SAY IT. It'll come out in the wash anyway. But, earn their trust.
By now the word trust should be evident. 
Jeremy Falcon
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Look out for the dammed bus, the bane of every contractor/ single person development is the bus that seems to follow them into every office. "What happens if you get hit by a bus?" The number of times I ran into this question when trying to sell either myself or software to large companies was depressing. And I never did find a satisfactory response.
You need a champion from each of your current department clients to push for you. Good luck!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Noooooo.
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Looking at the tiny (relative) number of Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems out there, I suspect Microsoft decided that the remaining systems would never be upgraded. We already know they won't run Windows 11 and were only a little over two years to Windows 10 end of support.
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...and therefore, what's the benefit to them?
I mean, the more people on 10/11 (rather than 7/8), the better for MS, no? Are they really thinking they're losing so much money on license sales that didn't happen because of that loophole?
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While people frequently gripe about Microsoft, I think the reality in this case is that it's easier to support fewer operating systems, so Microsoft "benefited" by keeping this upgrade route alive.
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That's exactly my point, it still benefits them to keep this loophole...so why close it now?
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I suspect there's a service that needs to be updated or removed and it has a direct impact on this upgrade path.
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back to the future or something..
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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I wrote a little C implementation of a ring buffer I was using for serial UART code. It wasn't very efficient because it only dealt with puts and gets one byte at a time. I improved it to deal in adding and reading series of bytes at a time.
I wrote it for someone I met on reddit who taught himself to code recently. I respect the effort, but bear in mind he taught himself to code recently.
Not really thinking about that code, I sent it off to him and it didn't occur to me to stash it somewhere. It was just something I threw together to help someone out.
Turns out, that bit of code was gold. And I can't find it. I could get some iteration of it back from the person on reddit, but I know they've already hacked it some - they told me as much. Yikes.
I tried to wrap my head around it to rewrite it, but I'm already dealing with overlapped I/O in windows w/ COM ports right now, and I can't spin that many plates these days, at least at once. I'll have to come back to it later, except I'm blocked now for want of the ring buffer.
I wish I had that code. Nice bit of kit that, a circular buffer you could write entire chunks to and from. I didn't think it was that big of a deal when I wrote it. 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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That's why I often write a quick Tip here on something I've done - it's come in handy on several occasions when I get to need it again!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Indeed.
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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Right?  I do use codeproject that way, but I just didn't here.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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C'mon, you can (re-)do it. It doesn't look so difficult (keeping in mind your skills).
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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Did the person happen to throw your code into a repository?
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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No, not by the time they mangled it.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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this time you can re-write this gold piece and post on code project. we can keep it for you![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
diligent hands rule....
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... (we'll call her "Sue") and they get to discussing "That Employee" (we'll call her "Karen"): you know the one - takes 30 minute loo breaks, disappears for an hour and no-one knows where she is, always last in line to do anything. The one no-one wants to work with, or to work on stuff she has done in the past. That Employee.
Anyway, Sue's daughter still works there, so the gossip gets back to Sue, and she passes it on the Herself. The company has had enough of Karen, and is building up a paper trail with the aim of firing her when they have enough evidence to forestall any legal objections.
Karen appears to have noticed that the game is up, and has found a new job, doing the same thing - so she applies online, and gives her reasons for wanting to change job as basically "the management here are sh*t".
Unfortunately, she didn't notice that the company she is applying for is not only in the same group of care homes, but ... is the care home she is currently "working" for ... and her application lands right on the home managers desk. 
Oh, I'd have loved to hear that conversation! 
Names changed to protect the guilty.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: "the management here are sh*t".
Burning bridges is never worth it. Can't speak from experience, but it's just not something that should ever be done.
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So they already posted her job in anticipation of firing her... and she applied for it?
Seems like they should let her accept it at lower or same wage and have her start fresh with a probationary period that allows for termination at end of probationary period without any reason by either party.
Fresh Start!
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