Today’s dose of guilty pleasure…

<Schadenfreude>

It means deriving pleasure from the misfortune of others.  While I’d like to say that I’m above Schadenfreude, I have to admit, for a split second today, Schadenfreude was my friend.

You see, today I noticed that a CIO friend of mine, at a company that I was talking to a few years back, got himself a new job.  Linkedin is great at helping me keep track of people who I’ve enjoyed speaking with in the past.  After a quick exchange of pleasantries, I asked him “whatever happened to that B2B eCommerce website project that you chose not to do with us at Corevist?”  (Both will remain anonymous to protect the innocent…and guilty)

Here is the response that I received:

“Hey Sam,
It was an abysmal failure, they weren’t able to get it done.
It was a waste of time and money, I’m kicking myself that I allowed my then bosses to allow price to be the deciding factor.

I have definitely learned an important lesson.

Best,
XXXXX “

Back then, his decision was predicated on the fact that his management didn’t appreciate our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model.  Even though we were easier to do business with, had better references and promised to get him into production faster and cheaper, they didn’t like the fact that they wouldn’t “own” the software.  They felt as if they could get the job done cheaper, and spend less in the long run, if they simply bought the software outright and used a combination of the vendor’s consulting services and their own in house staff to get the job done.

I was notified that we lost the deal on June 28, 2012.  Almost 2.5 years later, this Manufacturer still doesn’t have their SAP® Integrated B2B eCommerce website and my buddy the CIO no longer works for them.

So where exactly were their cost savings?

Sadly, this is not an uncommon storyline in my world.

<end Schadenfreude>

Sam