I am currently an architect for one of the worlds biggest IT companies and have long been a proponent of doing it right the first time. However, I can promise you, we ARE that 'well-funded adversary' and we are currently losing a great many deals in this financial climate to smaller companies who will do it cheaper, quicker and dirtier.

I keep hearing customer's say 'I like your proposal better, but we're going with XYZ company who are cheaper.' While this is not a sustainable practice for any party involved, XYZ company is getting cash flow and we are not.

Our only options are to either reduce prices to below cost or reduce quality to retain some margin.