[THIN] Re: OT: Sorta...Idea....Consultants Consortium
- From: "Michael Mills" <mmills@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 22:23:38 -0600
Consortium must be the buzz word of the year, our company has just
ramped up a similar idea where we have a group of business partners, One
does Enterprise Storage, One does IDS, one does Managed Firewalls, etc..
These are partners that we have used frequently over the past few years
trading back and forth business opportunities. Last November we all
came up with this idea that if we could package what collectively we all
offered that it would be a powerful sales package. We now have a
"package" to offer smaller consultant companies that they can then
resell at a profit to them and the consortium. It is a win-win
situation for all those involved. Already we have reaped the benefits
of having such a extraordinary and diverse back channel of talent.
The 501C thing is something that we were going to pursue but after some
consulting with others that have setup similar things we decided that it
would only limit our progress and growth for the future.
Not that I am Alan Greenspan, but I can definitely see that the future
of tech business is not being the best at everything but being the best
at locating the best company or person for the job.
As for working for ourselves, I agree that we do it for the money (to a
point) however isn't that how most companies actually got started? If
you work for yourself and you are good and honest at what you do your
personal business gets too big for you to handle yourself so you hire
someone to help you......... 10 Years later you are EDS....... (maybe a
little overstated)!!!!
Michael Mills
-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jim Kenzig http://thethin.net
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 7:51 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: Sorta...Idea....Consultants Consortium
Very Interesting. For that idea we would need a board and good
accounting as
you get audited twice a year as a 501C. I've looked into it when I was
thinking of thethin client magazine site(and yes we are still working on
that also) and my friend Al at virtualtrials.com is a 501C. It is a real
headache for him. He could tell you all about the ins and outs of it
and
some horror stories. He is regretting it because he has had some large
donation and sponsorship offers that he can't take. An LLC might be
simpler
to set up but would get taxed. I don't know. I'm thinking that we could
open it up for not just Citrix/Thin Computing Expertise but for anything
in
the Computer industry expertise. IE Windows, Networking/Cisco, Novell,
or
other certified consultants can be in. The Needs matcher wizard could
then
match up the persons skills with the customers needs. Lord knows that
between all of my list servs there is one of the best compilation of
people
out there anyplace in the world.
I know there are people out there on the lists who probably have some
experience in setting up such a thing. Do we need to start getting a
list
together of these people?
JK
-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of John Vorchak
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 8:04 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: Sorta...Idea....Consultants Consortium
Well, it's not exactly what Futurelink did, they were more of the
let's buy up some of the good/decent VARs in the country and try to
put a macromanagement spin on them while letting them still
micromanage themselves (into oblivion I might add). They used the
VARs to try to push ASP services and the VARs did that until they
lost money and then had to revert to making money the "old fashioned
way." Now Vector on the other hand has been quite successful in
trying a similar thing, so it can't be all that bad of a concept.
On a spin off of the original idea from Rob would be to organize a
501(c)(6) corporation here in the states (at first) and organize it
as the consortium of consultants [definition of a 501(c)(6) is a tax
exempt business league organization where the company is an
association of people who have a common business interest -- no this
doesn't mean that we get away tax free on work, it's just that the
organization and some other things don't get nailed].
Here's perhaps an extension on the idea:
Basically, let's say that I get a job here in Hershey for a company
upgrading 10 WinFrame servers and they also need 5 new servers added
to the farm in Oak Park, IL; I log the job with the consortium
looking for help; Ron O decides that he has the time and picks up the
ticket; we both bill our time out and get paid without excessive
travel costs and the normal crap.
I know that when I was working hardcore as an independent (years ago)
that there were a lot of times where I had to try to find subs who
could do 10 or 15 hours in some geographic spot where I would have
lost money to fly to, but it still needed to get done, and at that
time there were fewer people who even knew what Citrix was so I ended
up losing a lot of money going to dinky little airports in the middle
of nowhere...
The interesting thing about this is that it could look like, or even
be some sort of ubiquitous organization in which the work could
probably get done across the globe by people who were pretty sure
that they know what they are doing. It's a novel idea and it could
be an extremely powerful marketing tool for each individual or for
the consortium as a whole (plus as a side benefit because of the
power of the organization it could probably bring rates up
substancially for some folks). The interesting thing is that because
of the way that this could work it is feasible that some folks who
have "real" jobs could also get involved to do the remote work on a
very part time basis and pick up some extra cash.
Oh, and to answer your question Jim, no it's not that contractors
want to necessarily work for ourselves, it's just that there can be a
lot more opportunity in working as an independent (or if the market
is dry, less...) -- Purely mercenary greed.
Just my $0.02 worth, otherwise the whole original idea is a good one
and I know that I would personally be interested.
-John
=====================================
John A. Vorchak (eMVP)
Vorchak Software
Custom Windows XP Embedded and
Windows NT Embedded Components and Solutions
jvorchak@xxxxxxxx
=====================================
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