The Perfect Web Application Partner is found!

After the last several weeks of pain-stakingly grinding through the creation of the "just right" job description, reviewing nearly 40 vendor responses, outlining 2nd and then 3rd levels of screening questions (see recent posts), I had narrowed the choice to five vendors.

I layered in a round of detailed information about the project specifics, the budget and their proposal. None of the vendors had seen the project details until this point. The project is to complete the development of a community web-site called WineInvestor.

Of the five vendors:

• Only one of the finalists never responded - an Indian company of 150 people, never responded.
• Another, smaller Indian firm (10 people) responded that the author of the email had recently undergone surgery and could not respond at this time.
• Three of the finalists (two Indian firms and a Pakistani firm) submitted competitive bids - with the lowest bid coming in at 71% of the highest.

However, only two of the bids (the lowest two actually) had any detail about the project.

One of the responses provided a breakdown of project into major components (a database and subscriber management system, a community forum, a blog, etc.). I was satisfied with the response and liked a lot many of the qualitative elements about this small firm in Pakistan of about 10 people.

The other response provided a detailed spreadsheet of tasks, phases and and project elements. It was a rigorous analysis engineered to exude confidence! The sales person represented 150 person firm and, incredibly, worked only 2 hours from where I lived. (Both of these finalists had a state-side sales presence.)

I had found my winner! - or so I thought.

During my interview with the confidence-exuding engineering firm, I asked about a "match guarantee" that he offered in his original response to my project. He said he would consider it.

This is where the proverbial handoff turned into a fumble.

While I considered this a step in finalizing our terms, but never thought of it as a show-stopper, he interpreted it as a deal-breaker if he could not answer affirmatively.

After nearly daily correspondence and phone calls, I didn't hear from him for 3 days.

Long story, shorter. . . I called my other candidate, who quickly emailed me four references (I asked for three) and worked out final terms inside of 36 hours. I was really thrilled as this seems like a really solid group to work with. All four references reported five star reviews.

Forty two days from July 4 until August 16. Next time will be a lot faster.

Stay tuned for more about this partner and the WineInvestor project!