Re: Open-source opportunuity?
On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 09:18:51 +0100,
Clive Menzies <clive@clivemenzies.co.uk> wrote in message
<[🔎] 20030911081851.GS10433@apollo>:
> On (11/09/03 08:09), Oliver Elphick wrote:
> > On Thu, 2003-09-11 at 00:36, Clive Menzies wrote:
> > [ re Network Rail tender request ]
> > > I'm London (UK) based and have a business background. I lack the
> > > technical skills and knowledge to approach this but I'd be happy
> > > to contribute.
> >
> > I'm an accountant by training, but technical by long-settled choice.
> >
> > Making a tender is very much a business and marketing exercise. We
> > would need to convince the customer not only of the technical merits
> > of our proposal but also that we have an organisation capable both
> > of doing the job and of providing long-term support. We would first
> > have to build such an organisation.
> >
> > If that can be done, I would like to be involved.
> >
> Well there seems to be some interest in pursuing this and I would
> suggest that before going much further, we need to put together a
> team, assigning roles and responsibilities to research the bid.
>
> I have some experience of successful pitches for consultancy contracts
> but a task of this size and complexity is beyond what I've done in the
> past.
>
> Please could we have suggestions as to what the roles are/or should
> be. Then I would suggest a process as follows:
>
> Research the tender - what does Network Rail want? (scope and scale)
> Assess the competition
> Assess our ability to build a credible team
> Assign roles and responsibilities
> Collaborate on the Response to Tender
>
> Although the debian-user community has all the requisite skills to do
> this, it will also require people on the ground, in the UK, to pull
> this off. I've no idea of the number of people necessary to convince
> Network Rail that there is a team with a comprehensive skill set with
> cover and fall-back. If we are up against the likes of EDS, IBM, HP,
> Sun or one of the big consultancies, you can reckon that they will put
> a lot of man-power to this.
..BR will wanna have several such vendors around to pre-qualify
for the job, and we wanna reseach the tender first. ;-)
> I've had a couple of responses off-list, one individual and one on
> behalf of a company. I believe that this needs to be a community
> effort to succeed. It is the unique nature of the Debian community
> which may just be the USP (differentiator) that could win this. I
> wouldn't exclude a consortium with a corporate but we do need the
> willing involvement of some of the prime movers in the Debian
> community if we are to put together a credible bid.
..note that our bid does not have to exclude the other vendors.
> It is therefore most constructive if people express their interest on
> the debian-user list.
..agreed, but I do not wanna use this list to discuss the
details of the tender docs. ;-)
--
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-)
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
Scenarios always come in sets of three:
best case, worst case, and just in case.
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