>John,
>
>This brings up a question that's been floating around in my head for a number of years. I have not been privy to any meetings where folks from unnamed companies such as PW, AA, DT, to unname a few, present their spiel.
>
>What the heck do they say to the decision makers that would influence them to go with them. I would think that there are enough horror stories out there, such as yours, that would cause concern.
>
>But nooooooo. Just make a pretty presentation and say it will only cost a couple mil. And you are in like Flint.
>
>I just don't understand.
>
Would you buy a new car for 500 $ through the mail? Or in the hardware shop do you buy the tool (I did this yesterday) for 30 marks rather than 20 just cause it was more expensive -- so it had to be better. The people buying the software are taking big risks and the payoffs tend to be much more than a pair million. No surprise they're too scared to take the cheap bid. Most of the time. Right now I'm working on a contract where the losing bid was 10-13 million and our bid was 300K. So miracles can happen.