Patel also offers his shop as a testing ground for vendors. Two years ago, Microsoft took him up on the offer during the beta rollout of Windows XP. In return for the lessons Microsoft learned, it picked up some of GMAC's deployment costs. Patel's bosses let him take such risks because, he says, he has built a track record of successful projects completed on time and under budget.
Patel is confident that his aggressive purchasing will prove to be a competitive advantage as the economy improves. "You could turn off the lights for the next two years and we'd still be ahead of the market," he says. His experience shows you can wring a lot of extra value out of vendors if your timing is right and you have credibility with management (see our special issue on building business credibility).
David Joachim is Network Computing's editor/business technology. Write to him at [email protected].
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