Why You Don't Get Advice from Vendors
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Buying a loaf of bread doesn't have far reaching impact on your business plan and architecture.
It has a far reaching impact on my stomach, which is way more important than any business plan.
But you already know what you want when you go into the bakery. Can you really claim to have not decided on bread first?
That's really the underlying point. If you go to vendor A, you may tell yourself that you are looking for broad advice, but both you (subconsciously) and that vendor have an unspoken understanding that you've already decided on their products. Many of your decisions are already made. Same with the baker, he knows that it is bread that you want. Maybe you don't know if it is Italian or marbled rye, but you've chose the general product (bread) and the place (this one.) You aren't going to go across town to find another baker. You might engage two or three technology vendors, but you know that each relationship is just for their own products and none of them are going to have you step back and rethink being anything at all or going a completely different direction.
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"Because they are sales people, not technical people, and they are only paid to sell you something. So if you ask their technical advice, this is the best that they can do...."
The idea that a vendor company only consists of Sales people is ridiculous. Does Red Hat, Microsoft and a host of other vendors, simply consist of sales people? -
@scottalanmiller said:
I think you are confusing "having skills" or "having experience" with taking the time to know the competition, taking the time to know the customer, being willing to send them to a completely different solution that you can't meet.
I'm not confusing anything.
If you change the thread title from "Why You Don't Get Advice from Vendors" to "Why you should maintain a healthy scepticism about advice you get from vendors, why you should engage with multiple vendors and why should verify all vendor advice with your own independent research" then I agree with you completely.
Mostly you are just pointing out all the weaknesses and caveats of vendor advice. That's all to the good, but that is not the same thing as saying you should never get advice from a vendor. Getting advice from a vendor is a great way to learn and a great way to help source new products and solutions. I'd advise all IT pros to get as much advice as possible from as many people as possible - and that includes, but is not limited to, vendors.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I think you are confusing "having skills" or "having experience" with taking the time to know the competition, taking the time to know the customer, being willing to send them to a completely different solution that you can't meet.
I'm not confusing anything.
If you change the thread title from "Why You Don't Get Advice from Vendors" to "Why you should maintain a healthy scepticism about advice you get from vendors, why you should engage with multiple vendors and why should verify all vendor advice with your own independent research" then I agree with you completely.
Mostly you are just pointing out all the weaknesses and caveats of vendor advice. That's all to the good, but that is not the same thing as saying you should never get advice from a vendor. Getting advice from a vendor is a great way to learn and a great way to help source new products and solutions. I'd advise all IT pros to get as much advice as possible from as many people as possible - and that includes, but is not limited to, vendors.
No it is exactly the same. You should never get advice from a vendor. Our company works the same as NTG, we are consultants. We refuse to become resellers for any product because that will taint our advice. This is why I do not identify our company as a MSP anymore, because most MSP companies are reselling something. This means they are not actually giving you unbiased advice. They will be giving you advice they makes their company more money.
True, that most will still work on anything, but they will always be pushing Dell over HP or something similar.
