Re: [PHP] PHP Manual problems

Richard Quadling wrote:
> On 10 February 2010 13:02, Ashley Sheridan <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I've not had any personal experience with the public sector, but I have
>> heard stories from those who have. By all accounts, it seems that most
>> of the public sector is still stuck in the dark ages with regards to
>> technology, which could go some way to explaining the abysmal failure
>> rate of public sector projects! Open source in this sector would be a
>> perfect solution in most cases, but it's shunned because of fear of the
>> unknown and worry that anything free is worth the money paid for it.
> 
> I used to work for a company creating Payroll/Personal software. Our
> software was cheaper than the BIG boys, and several times, when it
> came to getting it into councils where there was little tech
> knowledge/skills, the lower prices worked against us.
> 
> And once they knew the price, we couldn't just hike it up to get the deal.

Part of the problem is that there's sometimes someone, lurking in the 
shadow of their ignorance, afraid to have to maintain something open 
sourcey :) It is a fight with these people except they won't meet you in 
open battle. You need to root them out and address them on a level 
playing field, say in a needs analysis meeting, and knock them down to 
size. It goes a long way towards aiding your argument and allowing your 
proposal to be considered for it's technical and cost savings merit. It 
is important though to do this in a professional and succinct manner. 
The last thing you want is to be wrestled into a mud fight.

Cheers,
Rob.
-- 
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