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Good analysis. I think for software sales, this type of thing is slowly fading as it becomes more and more commoditization. For all but the largest of busines

Good analysis. I think for software sales, this type of thing is slowly fading as it becomes more and more commoditization. For all but the largest of businesses, you go to AWS and pay the market price for compute and other services, there's not much need for contracts and negotiations and meetings, the price is the price. Going to a competitor or doing business the old way simply costs much more. Eventually, businesses align on consuming commodities as commodities, the spending slowly moves from CapEX to OpEX. AWS is the power company now. You agree to their terms, and you pay their bill. Unless you're doing a major industrial facility that requires mega-watts of power, you don't need to interact with their sales staff; same applies to AWS (and ironically, you can probably use power as a proxy to relative deal size here, too). 100 years from now, all the conceivable software is going to exist that could exist, at least for 'business processes.' If your business is selling potatoes as a farmer to distributor, the software you need to participate efficiently in that market will already exist.

nullwasamistake 7y ago
The upper end of the market is still contracts all the way down. My company has around 250 employees and every single service we use, software and otherwise, is a negotiated old school contract. The market price isn't what most companies pay. If you pay significant amounts to Amazon (maybe 1 employee salary worth) you're screwing yourself if you don't negotiate lower rates Edit: Just asked the corporate overlords. It's actually against our finance rules to pay for any recurring service charge without a negotiated contract.
- luckydata 7y ago
  You're still paying market price, just not the published one. Negotiating b2b deals is a little like ordering from the secret menu at in&out. Doing tons of that lately and it's quite the mechanical endeavor. The only really annoying part of it is deals move only as quickly as the sales drones want it to. I have to sit through their "sales process" even if I know exactly what I want, I know what I can spend and ultimately the deal will be done on my terms. It's funny to think that some guy got high fived to death for selling me a contract for about 35% the original quote.
  - ErikAugust 7y ago
    He’s being high-fived because you could have got it for 10% of the original quote.
- madhadron 7y ago
  > It's actually against our finance rules to pay for any recurring service charge without a negotiated contract. Your company probably also employs a professional shark whose job it is to squeeze the blood out of every stone he is pointed towards. With even a modest number of sizeable contracts, such a person would pay for themselves very easily.
  - mruts 7y ago
    At my old company we were paying millions for contracts and software we didn't use or really didn't mean. One of the analysts volunteered to be the "undertaker" and renegotiate. After a year of screaming at people on the phone (I sat next to him), he managed to save us around a million dollars, which was around a 60% savings. He pocketed maybe 30% of the money saved that year. Not bad for a year of being a dick.
  - nullwasamistake 7y ago
    Yup I know one of them, we have a couple sales sharks that do it when they're not busy attacking potential customers
- linuxftw 7y ago
  Technically speaking, you might enter into a contract with the power company. The 'negotiation' probably goes like this: Power Company: "You'll pay public rates on the same terms as literally every other customer" Your Company: "Deal!"
  - Ice_cream_suit 7y ago
    Power companies give significant discounts to large customers.
istjohn 7y ago
>100 years from now, all the conceivable software is going to exist that could exist, at least for 'business processes.' If your business is selling potatoes as a farmer to distributor, the software you need to participate efficiently in that market will already exist. I disagree. Unless we're talking about Artificial General Intelligence or some other general purpose technology, I think bespoke software will always be better--if not more cost effective--than off-the-shelf.

nullwasamistake 7y ago

The upper end of the market is still contracts all the way down. My company has around 250 employees and every single service we use, software and otherwise, is a negotiated old school contract. The market price isn't what most companies pay. If you pay significant amounts to Amazon (maybe 1 employee salary worth) you're screwing yourself if you don't negotiate lower rates Edit: Just asked the corporate overlords. It's actually against our finance rules to pay for any recurring service charge without a negotiated contract.

luckydata 7y ago
You're still paying market price, just not the published one. Negotiating b2b deals is a little like ordering from the secret menu at in&out. Doing tons of that lately and it's quite the mechanical endeavor. The only really annoying part of it is deals move only as quickly as the sales drones want it to. I have to sit through their "sales process" even if I know exactly what I want, I know what I can spend and ultimately the deal will be done on my terms. It's funny to think that some guy got high fived to death for selling me a contract for about 35% the original quote.
- ErikAugust 7y ago
  He’s being high-fived because you could have got it for 10% of the original quote.
madhadron 7y ago
> It's actually against our finance rules to pay for any recurring service charge without a negotiated contract. Your company probably also employs a professional shark whose job it is to squeeze the blood out of every stone he is pointed towards. With even a modest number of sizeable contracts, such a person would pay for themselves very easily.
- mruts 7y ago
  At my old company we were paying millions for contracts and software we didn't use or really didn't mean. One of the analysts volunteered to be the "undertaker" and renegotiate. After a year of screaming at people on the phone (I sat next to him), he managed to save us around a million dollars, which was around a 60% savings. He pocketed maybe 30% of the money saved that year. Not bad for a year of being a dick.
- nullwasamistake 7y ago
  Yup I know one of them, we have a couple sales sharks that do it when they're not busy attacking potential customers
linuxftw 7y ago
Technically speaking, you might enter into a contract with the power company. The 'negotiation' probably goes like this: Power Company: "You'll pay public rates on the same terms as literally every other customer" Your Company: "Deal!"
- Ice_cream_suit 7y ago
  Power companies give significant discounts to large customers.

istjohn 7y ago

>100 years from now, all the conceivable software is going to exist that could exist, at least for 'business processes.' If your business is selling potatoes as a farmer to distributor, the software you need to participate efficiently in that market will already exist. I disagree. Unless we're talking about Artificial General Intelligence or some other general purpose technology, I think bespoke software will always be better--if not more cost effective--than off-the-shelf.