June 17, 2010 at 14:41Commercial support for open source software, or the fight against the soviet mentality
The company I have been working for a long time is engaged in commercial support for the Asterisk open source software.
Asterisk is a software telephone exchange (IP PBX) distributed in source code. Powered by Linux and FreeBSD.
The system got its name from regular expressions, in which an asterisk (*) means any characters, with a hint that Asterisk will be able to do everything. As the ship was called, so it sailed - Asterisk really can do anything (we’ll ignore the quality with which it does this “everything”, this is beyond the scope of this article). This “all” has a downside - it’s very difficult for a newcomer to deal with Asterisk. Graphical interfaces (FreePbx, for example), and ready-made distributions (TrixBox) for dummies, on the one hand, lower the barrier to entry into Asterisk, but on the other hand, they make it worse. To install and configure a “clean” Asterisk without “wrappers”, you need to read the documentation, after which there is at least a basic understanding of the principles of the IP telephony system, and the problem of connecting the IP PBX to the communication provider does not enter into a stupor. The same, who install the system with “one click”, then in a panic they cry for help on the forums, formulating questions so that you don’t want to answer them. And forum users usually send such questions for commercial support. Thus, everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. formulating questions so that I don’t want to answer them. And forum users usually send such questions for commercial support. Thus, everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. formulating questions so that I don’t want to answer them. And forum users usually send such questions for commercial support. Thus, everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. Everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. Everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. but it will "beat on the ice." And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. but it will "beat on the ice." And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist.
Someone may argue, they say, it’s better to figure it out yourself than to spend money. I agree if you are a provider (it doesn’t matter, small or large), and telephony issues arise constantly. But for an ordinary company, the principle “everyone is doing their own thing” is more suitable. Modern telecommunications is a very difficult and “voluminous” business, and a quick solution to problems requires rich experience and knowledge. The time spent on mastering this business is not comparable with the cost of attracting a specialist. But even if the Customer understands this, and comes for commercial support, or even a turnkey solution, we are faced with the following post-Soviet “cockroach” - distrust. Let’s take a look at a specific example. No names, addresses. Therefore, the person with whom this correspondence took place should not be offended. He is the same as many others.
So. Correspondence. Initial request from the city of Tyumen:
Hello, Maxim. Asterisk setup is required:
1. Greeting (our voice)
2. Minimum IVR (our voice, the ability to choose a manager for the caller)
3. Internal communication - 5 phones
4. External output via sip of the local provider (provider-name.ru)
5. Through prefix - intercity via sipnet.ru
6. Call transfer
7. Call pickup
8. Fax to email.
Perhaps something else ...
Conditions:
Installation on my hardware (comp + 2 PAP2T gateways) will have a freshly installed Elastix, no gateway settings will be required - it will already be configured.
There are no FXO ports.
Comments: nothing unusual, everything is done trivially. If of course, know how. But let's take a closer look. There are two risk factors in this project - an unknown “small-town” provider and installation on the Customer’s hardware. The customer does not know how much time you can “kill” for a butt with a provider who does not miss calls, and claims that everything is fine on his part, and the logs proving the opposite refuses to recognize. The Customer also had no experience installing Linux on the motherboard with a cheap SASMF8I RAID controller (http://asteriskpbx.ru/wiki/intel-raid-sasmf8i-install-howto), but what kind of hardware the Customer has to learn in the process. The customer really wants to save money, so he takes noname iron, even himself (imagine, himself, in “one click”), puts Elastix on it (which takes about 10 minutes). Oh yes! Fax machine!!! The customer does not know that there are such fax machines, who respond to work with interface cards, and also ... fax over IP ... the customer does not know what T.38 is, its support or absence, and fax transmission over VoIP in general ... he knows nothing, and therefore wants everyone to do it for him. Excellent! Here is the Open Source business model! We all know, we will do everything. Everything would be fine if it weren't for ... money. “Name the estimated cost of customization” - this is how the Customer ends his letter. And now I will describe the evolution of our answers to this key question. “Name the estimated cost of customization” - this is how the Customer ends his letter. And now I will describe the evolution of our answers to this key question. “Name the estimated cost of customization” - this is how the Customer ends his letter. And now I will describe the evolution of our answers to this key question.
So, the first approach is TK. Yes, Terms of Reference.
The Terms of Reference is a comprehensive comprehensive document drawn up by the Contractor (!) According to the requirements of the Customer, where all aspects of the project are worked out in all the smallest details. It takes a lot of time to write and coordinate TK!
The task of TK is to shake out all his Wishlist from the Customer, formulate them, describe the implementation method, estimate the time spent on their implementation, and make a calculation that will answer the question “how much and when”. Once we were engaged in the development of software, and automatically transferred the "development approach", namely - "pay for the writing of the statement of work, and then we will find out how much". But only the approach working in software development began to slip from the very beginning. Well, the potential Customer didn’t want to understand what we want the money for ... The arguments that we spend on this time did not touch him much. He said, “So I sent you TK (as in the example above), what else to write?” In response, they sent him an example of TK of another project, in response he commented on it in detail (“Well, here’s TK for you”), with details of his surroundings, which generated a counter letter, where he was clearly shown that there was still a sea of questions to which he again answered :-) Thus, in the dispute with the Customer about whether he needed TK or not, it turned out TK, and there was nothing to pay for - the requirements were discussed, analyzed, described, time spent. But not paid. And do not include it in the project. But only 20% of customers got involved in the dispute. The rest after the offer to pay for TK merged forever, and attempts to return them sometimes came across rudeness and rudeness :-)
Then we decided to write off TK on production costs. And implicitly scatter the time spent writing it on the project. There are more orders received. The load grew so much that it suddenly became noticeable that the time to create a technical task, its approval, alterations, approval, took significantly more than the time spent on the project. And we thought deeply - do we need TK in general? they don’t want to pay, a lot of time is wasted. Of course, TK is a great thing, it allows you to minimize the risks of unjustified expectations and broken deadlines. It allows you to derive an honest assessment of the cost of the project - the Contractor does the agreed work on time and the Customer pays regularly for them. Without TK there can be three situations:
1) a rough estimate at the initial stage coincides with the real cost of labor resources - a rare case;
2) the approximate estimate of labor costs, given at the initial stage, exceeds the expended resources (the project is reevaluated) - the Contractor is glad, the customer was covered.
3) The initial assessment is less than the actual time spent - the Customer is glad, the Contractor is angry that he is forced to work for free. We will not mention the quality of services provided in this option.
But, nevertheless, the specifics of the implementation of Asterisk is such that it is easier to rely on statistics. Withdraw the average cost of the project “we will do everything for X thousand rubles.”, Sign an agreement, bill 50%, make a project, get the rest. And at the initial stage it worked. But then precedents appeared. Customers changed the requirements several times during the implementation process, delayed signing acts, came up with new requirements, and in response to unambiguous hints they poked a finger at the contract, which in the conditions of unclear initial requirements looked more like a gentleman's agreement. In short, almost falling into slavery, we covered this shop, went out onto the porch, and thought again. And we remembered the distant year 2004, when we were just starting to engage in Asterisk, when nobody knew anything about it in RuNet, and we made projects for Western bourgeoisie. Correspondence raised. And they were shocked. We generally had no problems evaluating the project. Her (evaluation) simply did not exist. Everyone had a rate of $ USD / hour. The first letter of the bourgeois replied that everything is possible, the cost of an hour is such and such, to pay at max@paypal.com, an advance payment of at least 3, 5, 10 or more hours. The customer paid on the same day, we did the work. Further, the Customer either again took the advance, or paid ex post. After the first “kiddos”, we learned how to make a “time bomb”, which was hidden in init scripts, and if it wasn’t de-activated after payment, at a certain moment carried away all the results of our work, packed them in the archive, and hid them in the bowels file system. The negligent Customer happily paid the rest, and additionally the time for restoration :-) We also remembered that when the demand for commercial support for Asterisk began to take shape in Russia, we also tried to apply the old approach with hourly pay, but it didn’t go right away, and we quickly abandoned it, using the approach of developers. But everything is back to square one :-)
And we, having learned alternative approaches to pricing Asterisk projects, again began to offer our customers to pay for our time spent on its tasks. And you know, something has changed! Some even began to agree! The best client (hi Oleg!) Paid immediately 50 hours (a year in advance), he is well versed in Asterisk and IP telephony, but for all tasks that go beyond simple support ("draw" new functionality, or solve a "rake"), Turns to us. Since I am sure that we will do it better and faster, and he knows how to value his time. But, nevertheless, such dialogues most often occur (original text):
- Hello. The cost of an hour is 2,200. Tentatively - 3 hours. Prepayment. Billing?
- Maxim, until the computer is assembled. As soon as I turn to you. Thanks for the quick response.
- Maybe, while we solve the commercial issue? We allow periodic loans, but we don’t start without prepayment.
- Maxim, I am ready to work with you, but what's the point of starting work without a computer on which there will be an asterisk? We do not physically have an asterisk computer yet :) You can, of course, write out an invoice for a 50% prepayment. Tomorrow I will throw off the details.
- Sergey, 3 hours, this is the minimum time. No 50%, not enough for another 10 thousand. Two invoices to issue ...
- I just did not understand your phrase about going on credit. As I understand it, the conditions are: our payment is 3 hours, then you work until you finish? Those. it can be four and five hours ... and six ?? I will give you the exact settings of our sip provider, I will write the most clear for you TK. I am a very good customer and I know what I need. I think we go to bed at three o’clock. :)
- Sergey. The cost of our services is 2,200 rubles. at one o'clock. No matter what it is spent on. 3 hours - minimum cost.
It will take more time - the next package is bought on those. support, 3 hours minimum. And so on, until your Wishlist is exhausted.
- Maxim, of course, this form of payment is very convenient for you, but not for me as a client. “3 hours minimum costs” - for what? I want to know what will be done in the allotted time, what they will be spent on, what will be configured during this time ?? (you can configure extensions for 5 phones in 15 minutes, or you can configure them in 2 days, 6600 in three hours) You can tell how long it takes to configure:
1. Greeting (our voice) (5 minutes)
2. Minimum IVR ( our voice is the ability to choose a manager for the caller) (10 minutes)
3. Intercom - 5 phones (work for 15 minutes)
4. External output via sip (Tyumen provider) (trunk setup)
5. Through the prefix - intercity via sipnet.ru (you have a 100% ready-made config, or you remember it from memory)
6. Transfer of a call (dial plin)
7. Interception of a call (dial plin)
8. Fax to email.
Security settings (change default passwords, etc.)
If you can’t answer the above question, I have a new one - Does your company have some kind of questionnaire (brief) for studying my Wishlist and calculating the approximate cost of development?
PS I'm sure - you have huge achievements, please do not breed me for a while, but tell me how much money I need for this work
- Hello, Sergey. Not ready to get involved in correspondence and disputes. This is our approach and point. I can only say that your risks are limited to 6600 rubles. Do not like the pace of work and results - stop cooperation. Subject to a good faith relationship, this form of work is ideal for both the Customer and the Contractor, at least everything is honest - the work is done and paid in full. Decide.
- Hello, Maxim. I clearly understood your approach: I buy your time, and you can use it however you want, for example, drink tea for 40 minutes. You can’t give me any time limits in my terms of reference and this outrages me. I don’t know anything about your pace of work and you don’t want to tell me anything about it (I’m interested in what work will be completed in 3 hours?). Do I understand you correctly? Is this your personal position or the position of the company?
PS
If you have a car, you know that the cost of repair / replacement is made clearly according to normal hours. But the total cost of repair / replacement does not depend on the amount of time spent. the work time of the workshop master depends on his qualifications, experience and salary. those. if replacing the hub costs 2 thousand rubles a normal hour, I will give 2 thousand! And if the master is tinkering with her for half a day - because these are his personal problems. So why can't you tell me what will be done in three hours ?!
... I do not know what to answer to the last letter of the Customer. To write that to fully implement Asterisk is not an oil change? That often there are various unforeseen situations arising due to the nuances of the customer’s environment ... Give examples of how dozens of hours were “put” to solve problems of voice chatter, and on a tired request to change the network switch, the customer swore obscenities, and then changed, and it all worked ? Why do we have to convince the customer that he should pay for our work. It seems to me that the principle of outsourcing is that the Customer temporarily hires an external specialist who solves his tasks, and leaves, and the Customer engages in its core business, not particularly distracted. After all, you can "risk" to pay a few hours, see how it goes ... After all, most often "go"! The customer doesn’t contact students, and this is immediately clear. Where does the distrust, suspicion, and ridiculous assumptions about tea, coffee, and picking in the nose come from? The risk is limited to several thousand ... Try ... You can finally look for negative reviews on the Internet ...
How!? How to expel these cockroaches from the mentality of Russian IT managers and system administrators !?
Hourly pay is an ideal form of cooperation with professionals. You pay - we honestly do our job the way you never do, because you will not have 6 years to catch up with us. Why is this the norm for the bourgeoisie, and the explosion of the brain for our people? Nipanyatnaa ...
Asterisk is a software telephone exchange (IP PBX) distributed in source code. Powered by Linux and FreeBSD.
The system got its name from regular expressions, in which an asterisk (*) means any characters, with a hint that Asterisk will be able to do everything. As the ship was called, so it sailed - Asterisk really can do anything (we’ll ignore the quality with which it does this “everything”, this is beyond the scope of this article). This “all” has a downside - it’s very difficult for a newcomer to deal with Asterisk. Graphical interfaces (FreePbx, for example), and ready-made distributions (TrixBox) for dummies, on the one hand, lower the barrier to entry into Asterisk, but on the other hand, they make it worse. To install and configure a “clean” Asterisk without “wrappers”, you need to read the documentation, after which there is at least a basic understanding of the principles of the IP telephony system, and the problem of connecting the IP PBX to the communication provider does not enter into a stupor. The same, who install the system with “one click”, then in a panic they cry for help on the forums, formulating questions so that you don’t want to answer them. And forum users usually send such questions for commercial support. Thus, everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. formulating questions so that I don’t want to answer them. And forum users usually send such questions for commercial support. Thus, everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. formulating questions so that I don’t want to answer them. And forum users usually send such questions for commercial support. Thus, everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. Everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. Everyone needs commercial technical support :-) But! The vast majority of our people do not know how to count imputed costs. Instead of buying the specialist’s attention to his problem, quickly learning from him, and “moving on”, our people will spend a lot of time and nerves (their own, the director and other employees), but they will “beat on the ice” on their own. And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. but it will "beat on the ice." And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist. but it will "beat on the ice." And all because there is no mass culture of one-time involvement of consultants and payment of their time. “I’ll choke on it, but I won’t cry” - here it is the first “cockroach” of a typical post-Soviet IT specialist.
Someone may argue, they say, it’s better to figure it out yourself than to spend money. I agree if you are a provider (it doesn’t matter, small or large), and telephony issues arise constantly. But for an ordinary company, the principle “everyone is doing their own thing” is more suitable. Modern telecommunications is a very difficult and “voluminous” business, and a quick solution to problems requires rich experience and knowledge. The time spent on mastering this business is not comparable with the cost of attracting a specialist. But even if the Customer understands this, and comes for commercial support, or even a turnkey solution, we are faced with the following post-Soviet “cockroach” - distrust. Let’s take a look at a specific example. No names, addresses. Therefore, the person with whom this correspondence took place should not be offended. He is the same as many others.
So. Correspondence. Initial request from the city of Tyumen:
Hello, Maxim. Asterisk setup is required:
1. Greeting (our voice)
2. Minimum IVR (our voice, the ability to choose a manager for the caller)
3. Internal communication - 5 phones
4. External output via sip of the local provider (provider-name.ru)
5. Through prefix - intercity via sipnet.ru
6. Call transfer
7. Call pickup
8. Fax to email.
Perhaps something else ...
Conditions:
Installation on my hardware (comp + 2 PAP2T gateways) will have a freshly installed Elastix, no gateway settings will be required - it will already be configured.
There are no FXO ports.
Comments: nothing unusual, everything is done trivially. If of course, know how. But let's take a closer look. There are two risk factors in this project - an unknown “small-town” provider and installation on the Customer’s hardware. The customer does not know how much time you can “kill” for a butt with a provider who does not miss calls, and claims that everything is fine on his part, and the logs proving the opposite refuses to recognize. The Customer also had no experience installing Linux on the motherboard with a cheap SASMF8I RAID controller (http://asteriskpbx.ru/wiki/intel-raid-sasmf8i-install-howto), but what kind of hardware the Customer has to learn in the process. The customer really wants to save money, so he takes noname iron, even himself (imagine, himself, in “one click”), puts Elastix on it (which takes about 10 minutes). Oh yes! Fax machine!!! The customer does not know that there are such fax machines, who respond to work with interface cards, and also ... fax over IP ... the customer does not know what T.38 is, its support or absence, and fax transmission over VoIP in general ... he knows nothing, and therefore wants everyone to do it for him. Excellent! Here is the Open Source business model! We all know, we will do everything. Everything would be fine if it weren't for ... money. “Name the estimated cost of customization” - this is how the Customer ends his letter. And now I will describe the evolution of our answers to this key question. “Name the estimated cost of customization” - this is how the Customer ends his letter. And now I will describe the evolution of our answers to this key question. “Name the estimated cost of customization” - this is how the Customer ends his letter. And now I will describe the evolution of our answers to this key question.
So, the first approach is TK. Yes, Terms of Reference.
The Terms of Reference is a comprehensive comprehensive document drawn up by the Contractor (!) According to the requirements of the Customer, where all aspects of the project are worked out in all the smallest details. It takes a lot of time to write and coordinate TK!
The task of TK is to shake out all his Wishlist from the Customer, formulate them, describe the implementation method, estimate the time spent on their implementation, and make a calculation that will answer the question “how much and when”. Once we were engaged in the development of software, and automatically transferred the "development approach", namely - "pay for the writing of the statement of work, and then we will find out how much". But only the approach working in software development began to slip from the very beginning. Well, the potential Customer didn’t want to understand what we want the money for ... The arguments that we spend on this time did not touch him much. He said, “So I sent you TK (as in the example above), what else to write?” In response, they sent him an example of TK of another project, in response he commented on it in detail (“Well, here’s TK for you”), with details of his surroundings, which generated a counter letter, where he was clearly shown that there was still a sea of questions to which he again answered :-) Thus, in the dispute with the Customer about whether he needed TK or not, it turned out TK, and there was nothing to pay for - the requirements were discussed, analyzed, described, time spent. But not paid. And do not include it in the project. But only 20% of customers got involved in the dispute. The rest after the offer to pay for TK merged forever, and attempts to return them sometimes came across rudeness and rudeness :-)
Then we decided to write off TK on production costs. And implicitly scatter the time spent writing it on the project. There are more orders received. The load grew so much that it suddenly became noticeable that the time to create a technical task, its approval, alterations, approval, took significantly more than the time spent on the project. And we thought deeply - do we need TK in general? they don’t want to pay, a lot of time is wasted. Of course, TK is a great thing, it allows you to minimize the risks of unjustified expectations and broken deadlines. It allows you to derive an honest assessment of the cost of the project - the Contractor does the agreed work on time and the Customer pays regularly for them. Without TK there can be three situations:
1) a rough estimate at the initial stage coincides with the real cost of labor resources - a rare case;
2) the approximate estimate of labor costs, given at the initial stage, exceeds the expended resources (the project is reevaluated) - the Contractor is glad, the customer was covered.
3) The initial assessment is less than the actual time spent - the Customer is glad, the Contractor is angry that he is forced to work for free. We will not mention the quality of services provided in this option.
But, nevertheless, the specifics of the implementation of Asterisk is such that it is easier to rely on statistics. Withdraw the average cost of the project “we will do everything for X thousand rubles.”, Sign an agreement, bill 50%, make a project, get the rest. And at the initial stage it worked. But then precedents appeared. Customers changed the requirements several times during the implementation process, delayed signing acts, came up with new requirements, and in response to unambiguous hints they poked a finger at the contract, which in the conditions of unclear initial requirements looked more like a gentleman's agreement. In short, almost falling into slavery, we covered this shop, went out onto the porch, and thought again. And we remembered the distant year 2004, when we were just starting to engage in Asterisk, when nobody knew anything about it in RuNet, and we made projects for Western bourgeoisie. Correspondence raised. And they were shocked. We generally had no problems evaluating the project. Her (evaluation) simply did not exist. Everyone had a rate of $ USD / hour. The first letter of the bourgeois replied that everything is possible, the cost of an hour is such and such, to pay at max@paypal.com, an advance payment of at least 3, 5, 10 or more hours. The customer paid on the same day, we did the work. Further, the Customer either again took the advance, or paid ex post. After the first “kiddos”, we learned how to make a “time bomb”, which was hidden in init scripts, and if it wasn’t de-activated after payment, at a certain moment carried away all the results of our work, packed them in the archive, and hid them in the bowels file system. The negligent Customer happily paid the rest, and additionally the time for restoration :-) We also remembered that when the demand for commercial support for Asterisk began to take shape in Russia, we also tried to apply the old approach with hourly pay, but it didn’t go right away, and we quickly abandoned it, using the approach of developers. But everything is back to square one :-)
And we, having learned alternative approaches to pricing Asterisk projects, again began to offer our customers to pay for our time spent on its tasks. And you know, something has changed! Some even began to agree! The best client (hi Oleg!) Paid immediately 50 hours (a year in advance), he is well versed in Asterisk and IP telephony, but for all tasks that go beyond simple support ("draw" new functionality, or solve a "rake"), Turns to us. Since I am sure that we will do it better and faster, and he knows how to value his time. But, nevertheless, such dialogues most often occur (original text):
- Hello. The cost of an hour is 2,200. Tentatively - 3 hours. Prepayment. Billing?
- Maxim, until the computer is assembled. As soon as I turn to you. Thanks for the quick response.
- Maybe, while we solve the commercial issue? We allow periodic loans, but we don’t start without prepayment.
- Maxim, I am ready to work with you, but what's the point of starting work without a computer on which there will be an asterisk? We do not physically have an asterisk computer yet :) You can, of course, write out an invoice for a 50% prepayment. Tomorrow I will throw off the details.
- Sergey, 3 hours, this is the minimum time. No 50%, not enough for another 10 thousand. Two invoices to issue ...
- I just did not understand your phrase about going on credit. As I understand it, the conditions are: our payment is 3 hours, then you work until you finish? Those. it can be four and five hours ... and six ?? I will give you the exact settings of our sip provider, I will write the most clear for you TK. I am a very good customer and I know what I need. I think we go to bed at three o’clock. :)
- Sergey. The cost of our services is 2,200 rubles. at one o'clock. No matter what it is spent on. 3 hours - minimum cost.
It will take more time - the next package is bought on those. support, 3 hours minimum. And so on, until your Wishlist is exhausted.
- Maxim, of course, this form of payment is very convenient for you, but not for me as a client. “3 hours minimum costs” - for what? I want to know what will be done in the allotted time, what they will be spent on, what will be configured during this time ?? (you can configure extensions for 5 phones in 15 minutes, or you can configure them in 2 days, 6600 in three hours) You can tell how long it takes to configure:
1. Greeting (our voice) (5 minutes)
2. Minimum IVR ( our voice is the ability to choose a manager for the caller) (10 minutes)
3. Intercom - 5 phones (work for 15 minutes)
4. External output via sip (Tyumen provider) (trunk setup)
5. Through the prefix - intercity via sipnet.ru (you have a 100% ready-made config, or you remember it from memory)
6. Transfer of a call (dial plin)
7. Interception of a call (dial plin)
8. Fax to email.
Security settings (change default passwords, etc.)
If you can’t answer the above question, I have a new one - Does your company have some kind of questionnaire (brief) for studying my Wishlist and calculating the approximate cost of development?
PS I'm sure - you have huge achievements, please do not breed me for a while, but tell me how much money I need for this work
- Hello, Sergey. Not ready to get involved in correspondence and disputes. This is our approach and point. I can only say that your risks are limited to 6600 rubles. Do not like the pace of work and results - stop cooperation. Subject to a good faith relationship, this form of work is ideal for both the Customer and the Contractor, at least everything is honest - the work is done and paid in full. Decide.
- Hello, Maxim. I clearly understood your approach: I buy your time, and you can use it however you want, for example, drink tea for 40 minutes. You can’t give me any time limits in my terms of reference and this outrages me. I don’t know anything about your pace of work and you don’t want to tell me anything about it (I’m interested in what work will be completed in 3 hours?). Do I understand you correctly? Is this your personal position or the position of the company?
PS
If you have a car, you know that the cost of repair / replacement is made clearly according to normal hours. But the total cost of repair / replacement does not depend on the amount of time spent. the work time of the workshop master depends on his qualifications, experience and salary. those. if replacing the hub costs 2 thousand rubles a normal hour, I will give 2 thousand! And if the master is tinkering with her for half a day - because these are his personal problems. So why can't you tell me what will be done in three hours ?!
... I do not know what to answer to the last letter of the Customer. To write that to fully implement Asterisk is not an oil change? That often there are various unforeseen situations arising due to the nuances of the customer’s environment ... Give examples of how dozens of hours were “put” to solve problems of voice chatter, and on a tired request to change the network switch, the customer swore obscenities, and then changed, and it all worked ? Why do we have to convince the customer that he should pay for our work. It seems to me that the principle of outsourcing is that the Customer temporarily hires an external specialist who solves his tasks, and leaves, and the Customer engages in its core business, not particularly distracted. After all, you can "risk" to pay a few hours, see how it goes ... After all, most often "go"! The customer doesn’t contact students, and this is immediately clear. Where does the distrust, suspicion, and ridiculous assumptions about tea, coffee, and picking in the nose come from? The risk is limited to several thousand ... Try ... You can finally look for negative reviews on the Internet ...
How!? How to expel these cockroaches from the mentality of Russian IT managers and system administrators !?
Hourly pay is an ideal form of cooperation with professionals. You pay - we honestly do our job the way you never do, because you will not have 6 years to catch up with us. Why is this the norm for the bourgeoisie, and the explosion of the brain for our people? Nipanyatnaa ...