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vasanthz
Global Moderator
Joined: 28 Aug 2007
Posts: 1742
Location: Tirupur, India
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Hello,
Below is a hypothetical situation, slightly based on a true scenario. Please let me know what would you do in this case?
Assume you work for a company that sells hard disks to mainframe customers. One fine day You spot a incorrect configuration in customer's mainframe(say via SMF records).
You(being the expert) know that if the incorrect setting is corrected, it would save a lot of DASD space for the customer(like $10K savings per month) and eventually $10K less income for your company.
What would you do
Point to the customer that something is not right? or keep quiet about it since it affects your employer directly?
"General Talk & Fun Stuff" nothing serious 
Regards, |
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enrico-sorichetti
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Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 10873
Location: italy
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| Quote: |
You(being the expert) know that if the incorrect setting is corrected, it would save a lot of DASD space for the customer(like $10K savings per month) and eventually $10K less income for your company.
What would you do
Point to the customer that something is not right? or keep quiet about it since it affects your employer directly?
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IMO the premises are faulty, as far as the $$$ are concerned,
since no longer equpment is rented, but sold, the money has already been spent
an incorrect setting is unlikely to cause such monetary damage
anyway the proper business approach would be to point that to the customer,
whatever a PHM or a salesdroid will tell
in the long range it will bring more business
and if the parameter setting is so critical You might even face a lawsuit for damages.
( withholding critical info ) |
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Anuj Dhawan
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Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 6250
Location: Mumbai, India
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This is really hypothetical - an incorrect setting is not going to cost that much.
OTOH -- Be honest. I believe, being honest is still the best policy with some behavioral senses.
You might "save" $10K this time, but the client is not an 'idiot', one day or other some expert from their team will know it - and then, you might be just out of Business (at least from this client side). |
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Robert Sample
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Joined: 06 Jun 2008
Posts: 8696
Location: Dubuque, Iowa, USA
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| I think you have to let the client know. Sooner or later things like this tend to come out, and if it becomes known that your company could have informed the client of the incorrect setting and its impact but did not do so, there's not much chance of future business from that client. The short-term impact may be some revenue reduction, but the increased good will of the client knowing your company is focused on the whole relationship rather than just how much to get from the client will, eventually, make your company more money than the short-term loss. |
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vasanthz
Global Moderator
Joined: 28 Aug 2007
Posts: 1742
Location: Tirupur, India
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Thanks for the unanimous answer, Good will is more important.
That hypothetical character is now feeling weird for even considering to conceal information, Although his predominant instinct was to be honest(believe me on this :-) )
He being only a foot soldier is going to have some hard time convincing the Sales accounting team.
Regards, |
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dick scherrer
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Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Posts: 19244
Location: Inside the Matrix
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Hi Vasanth,
Once again i've nearly missed the party . . . 
| Quote: |
IMO the premises are faulty, as far as the $$$ are concerned,
since no longer equpment is rented, but sold, the money has already been spent |
| Quote: |
| This is really hypothetical - an incorrect setting is not going to cost that much. |
Several of my clients "Charge Back" IT costs to their user departments. Some other clients have been for-profit service bureaus.
While internal chargeback may be "funny money", managers are often judged by how well they control this "cost".
In the case of a for-profit service bureau, a friend once had a similar delima. He had determined that changing a few "things" would result in less dasd needed as well as a significant reduction in cpu used. He couldn't implement the change as it would have really messed up their billing. Customers would have seen the reduction in the amount they had to pay - but could have potentially put the company out of business . . .
Personally, i "tell it like it is". Suggest anyone who is "tempted", refer to Robert's post 
d |
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Ed Goodman
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Joined: 08 Jun 2011
Posts: 556
Location: USA
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Wait wait wait...Your company has a group responsible for contact with the clients. You should let THEM know and they will make the decision.
There is a really good chance they will use the information to get more business in the long run.
I would NEVER contact a client directly. There are so many variables in the business-to-business relationship that you could really mess something up.
I can guarantee you that the first person to suffer from that $10K loss will be the techie who broke protocol and spoke to the client outside of normal channels. |
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enrico-sorichetti
Superior Member
Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 10873
Location: italy
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| Quote: |
| Wait wait wait...Your company has a group responsible for contact with the clients. You should let THEM know and they will make the decision. |
and anyway I would write a memo to file for my manager in order to protect my credibility with the client.
and let them idiots explain to the customer why they FORCED me not to tell
but sooner or later somebody is going to discover it and HM will start flying  |
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vasanthz
Global Moderator
Joined: 28 Aug 2007
Posts: 1742
Location: Tirupur, India
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Hi D,
I can totally relate to your friend's dilemma.
| Ed Goodman wrote: |
I would NEVER contact a client directly. |
Me too, Thank you for your word of caution. I was dropped on my head when I was a kid, but not so hard enough to bypass my team lead, manager, senior manager, global account manager, service executive and service delivery manager, etc.. :-)
Regards, |
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