Does he know?

Posted by   Bert Engelbrecht


Often I experience that customers request quotations for work, or that we are contracted to deliver products upon which I have to ask 'Does the customer understand what they are buying?' There are in my experience primarily two factors that lead to 'Blind purchasing'. Firstly customers are either intimidated by industry trends, and / or well honed sales forces that bang down doors, with great solutions for problems that the customer hasn't even encountered, which then obviously implies that it has to be tehnologically enhanced products. Secondly customers are affected by a basic understanding of a potential solutions domain to certain problems that are being encountered. Both of these influences ultimately end up with a customer spending vast amounts of money on solution components that are often misaligned with his strategic direction, and typically a misunderstanding of the actual implementation implications and operational implications up-front. Organisations have simply spent too much money for zero or too little buiness benefit. A part of the solution to this problem is education and mostly a mechanism is required to ensure that ANY project that is undertaken has to directly enable the strategic direction of the business.
Board Functions
      
Classical Project Problems
 SubjectNameDate Posted
Does he know? Bert Engelbrecht27 January 2003