Ken,
I've been there many times!!!
I think the most important thing is in providing some sort of risk assessment to nudge them into doing it right. It doesn't have to be complicated... just find out what they have for, say a week of sales. Ask them if they can afford to lose one week of sales a year due to database corruption, bad indexes, and other downtime. If one week of sales for the entire company is not enough revenue to purchase a server, then it maybe tough to justify the expense of a consultant anyway.
I'd also encourage having some IT metrics to throw at them.
http://www.itmweb.com/blbenchbgt.htmFor example you could look at the manufacturing average of 3.3% of revenue and have them compare that to what they are spending on technology vs. revenue. If they are well under the industry average, you may have justification for them to spend more money.
Obviously if their competitors are spending 3.3% for their industry, they must be aware of the longterm consequences and risks of spending less. Particularly if they are willing to ignore professional recommendations.
Finally, it would be smart to have a small network of other professionals you could refer clients to that could back up your recommendations. In other words, if they won't believe you, have them call some other professionals that you can trust to get a second opinion.
I believe that if a client is too cheap to buy a server up front to run the app that they will only mean more trouble down the road. Most likely they will end up being a client that will only want to put in money when there is a crisis and all hell has broken lose. Then when the trouble is gone, they won't spend a dime to prevent the next problem.
The only solution is to change the way they see their business and how important their information systems are, or to drop them altogether.
Greg
>Hi,
>
>We have been in the custom app development business (primarily FP and VFP) for 14 years. During the first 13 years, our client base consisted of medium size companies ($50-$500 million in sales), and it was easy to insist that they have a "real" network including a real NOS.
>
>More recently, our client base is shifting towards small and very small businesses. We have a POS/Inventory Control app with fully integrated accounting that is attractive to these small businesses BUT...... it is becoming more difficult to insist that they have a "real" network. Most of them balk at the price, especially when they have been a 'Quickbooks and Excel' type of operation from their inception.
>
>In some cases we have agreed to a 'Peer to Peer' network with the stipulation that one of the work stations is "server only" and not to be used as a WS.
>
>I would like to hear how others who are in the Mom $ Pop market deal with this issue.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ken
