Discussion on:

Choose the right software and you could boost your career and get a free copy to boot

Caution - could this be considered a conflict of interested, or could it even smell like a conflict of interest.

You got this $2,500 software license for free from vendor XYZ. Now you are going to recommend it to your contract.

I would recommend that you notify that Vendor XYZ has given you a license for no charge of that product and that you have no obligation and receive nothing for the recommendation or sale. But it is an excellent tool and you would recommend it for their us.

Ifyou start down this road - you may just end up in a Conflict of interest problems .... caution and notification of your contract should be know of those facts...

Even if it is legal - it would still smell of a conflict.

Hi JimHM,

You are right. If you don't handle the situation right, you can blur the line of conflicts of interest.

One of the messages of my article is:

Make sure this is the product that is right for the solution...because you will be the one implementing it.

I always inform the client that I have an evaluation copy. This raises your credibility with customers, because it shows you can work with vendors.

It also raises credibility of the software with the customer, because you went out of your way to get a personal evaluation copy.

Thanks

Chris

You got this $2,500 software license for free from vendor XYZ. Now you are going to recommend it to your contract.

Perhaps a more appropriate scenario is this:

You've been hired to develop an application for your client. The first question to be answered is what is the right development environment for this client, this product, and you, to be working with.

Pursuant to that question, it's necessary and appropriate for you, the consultant and prospective developer, to test and evaluate each of the development environments to determine the one most appropriate for the project.

I believe this is the scenario that the article envisions, and in this scenario it would be totally appropriate for you to approach the vendors of each of the potential development environments for an evaluation version of their development environment.

I do agree, though, that it would be totally inappropriate to choose to develop in any environment simply because:

(a) you already own the development environment;
(b) you're an expert in the environment and don't want to use/learn any other environment (unless, of course, you were hired specifically because of your expertise -- in which case, one presumes the aforementioned evaluations have already been properly conducted);
(c) you've been given a free (not trial, but FREE) copy of the development environment and are "paying homage" to the vendor for their generosity.

You don't want to get into the situation where you get free software but it does not fit the clients needs and now YOU have to implement the software. This would be a nightmare and will make you wish you had never heard of the software.

Generally, if a software does not fit a clients needs...it probably won't fit other clients needs as well.

I am always evaluating new software for my company and find that vendors are more willing to provide a copy if you willing to take the time to provide a written feedback on their product. I make it a point of talking to them half through my evaluation. I am also up front with them in explaining that I am looking at other similar products. If the vendor start bad mouthing their competition, then I am pretty sure I don't want to do business with them.
At the end of the evaluation period, I will usually send each of the vendors a summary of my evaluation. I am please to say that many of vendors appreciate the feedback I have sent them even if their products where not selected. I have seen some my comment incorporate in their updated version.

I thoroughly appreciated this article. Kudos to the author; I would love to see other well-written articles on this topic.

Victoria D Cotledge
Los Angeles, CA

I recommend you keep copies of the disclosure evaluation licenses on file in paper form, and have them signed by you and the software company. Some companies hid a clause that you must pay full price for any evaluation software not returned to the company after 6-months. It happened to me but luckly we had salesman sign our own disclosure saying we would destroy any unused software.

what the hell is it