2 ms·

Great ideas! We'll see how receptive they are. From the legalese letter I received today it doesn't seem to encouraging. At the same time, the contacts I spoke

by zaidf 18y ago

Great ideas! We'll see how receptive they are. From the legalese letter I received today it doesn't seem to encouraging. At the same time, the contacts I spoke with at the IT dept. few days ago could not stop praising the website.

icey 18y ago
Well, you already know what the worst case scenario is (you get cut off). Anything you can negotiate will be better than that.
TomOfTTB 18y ago
One other piece of advice. If the IT dept seems to love your site try pitching a compromise to them and let them pitch it to their boss. The pitch will be worth more coming from an emplooyee anyway and giving the IT dept a chance to play hero makes it worthwhile for them (which in turn makes them advocate even harder for you)
- jfarmer 18y ago
  Yes, getting an internal champion when you're trying to pitch an organization is very, very important. Sometimes it's very difficult, but in this case it appears that most of the staff actually like the product!
jfarmer 18y ago
Like icey said, you know the worst case scenario. They've played their hand. But reading the letter, their only concrete objection is the fact that you're using "excessive resources." That's their pain point, so make them see that your service helps that problem, not makes it worse.
- brodie 18y ago
  I don't know, I could imagine them being somewhat serious about the license/number of connections violation. Speaking from direct experience, I wouldn't underestimate the amount of bureaucracy internally that would come down on this like a ton of bricks. Like others have mentioned, his best bet is to get someone to champion his cause internally. It doesn't even necessarily have to be someone in their ITS department - it could be a faculty member, or even someone in administration. Hell, you might be able to get a job out of this.
  - jfarmer 18y ago
    Why discount the effort before you try? The worst that happens is they don't buy the pitch, and he's back where he is now.

by zaidf 18y ago

icey 18y ago

Well, you already know what the worst case scenario is (you get cut off). Anything you can negotiate will be better than that.

TomOfTTB 18y ago

One other piece of advice. If the IT dept seems to love your site try pitching a compromise to them and let them pitch it to their boss. The pitch will be worth more coming from an emplooyee anyway and giving the IT dept a chance to play hero makes it worthwhile for them (which in turn makes them advocate even harder for you)

jfarmer 18y ago
Yes, getting an internal champion when you're trying to pitch an organization is very, very important. Sometimes it's very difficult, but in this case it appears that most of the staff actually like the product!

jfarmer 18y ago

Like icey said, you know the worst case scenario. They've played their hand. But reading the letter, their only concrete objection is the fact that you're using "excessive resources." That's their pain point, so make them see that your service helps that problem, not makes it worse.

brodie 18y ago
I don't know, I could imagine them being somewhat serious about the license/number of connections violation. Speaking from direct experience, I wouldn't underestimate the amount of bureaucracy internally that would come down on this like a ton of bricks. Like others have mentioned, his best bet is to get someone to champion his cause internally. It doesn't even necessarily have to be someone in their ITS department - it could be a faculty member, or even someone in administration. Hell, you might be able to get a job out of this.
- jfarmer 18y ago
  Why discount the effort before you try? The worst that happens is they don't buy the pitch, and he's back where he is now.