I sometimes do a day here and a day there for a consultancy in London. They had asked me to go to a client site and help the lead developer with a migration from Crystal 6 to Crystal 9 and embed it into the CRM system.
I was a little confused as this is really easy. When I spoke to him he banged on about linking the reports to the CRM forms and firing them off on the press of a button and that he couldnt find any documentation.
I do crystal. I dont do Remedy development work.
So I went to the office to have a practice and realised it was actually a piece of development work on the CRM as opposed to anything to with Crystal. I worked out 4 methods and toddled off up there. Told the consultancdy and they went - yeh just help him.
Anyway the lead developer was a 'yeh, yeh, yeh, I no that, show me this instead'
1st Thing - No report module in the CRM. Turned out they had no license and it wasnt part of the standard install even though it was on all others. Had to put in support call to base to realise they hadnt bought it. So scuppered methods 1.
Method 2 he wasnt interested in.
So went to show him Method 3/4. Added the code to the forms, went through the process and there was a problem with the server for the CRM. Eventually had to put in a support call and configured it for this problem. Ran it and it didnt work. Then had to put in another support call and it transpired that the patch was wrong on the CRM - so downloaded and patched it. Still didnt work.
Then there was a problem with the install of SQL Server, which I modified, then tried again. Still problems. Realised the problem was one of two things
a) Setting on SQL Server
or b) Crystal needed an update.
Neither one he could do today. Then he said, well you've shown me how to do it, I understand its a config problem and we need to change inside, so you may as well go back to base and find out why my system doenst work. By the way, not going to pay you until it does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And he sent me on my way. 280 mile round trip. On the road for 7 hours. At the site for 3 hours. Problem not solved.
Who pays me? Do I still invoice the consultancy, even though the client didnt get his system working?
MF in 'Never happened to me as a contractor before' Mode.
I was a little confused as this is really easy. When I spoke to him he banged on about linking the reports to the CRM forms and firing them off on the press of a button and that he couldnt find any documentation.
I do crystal. I dont do Remedy development work.
So I went to the office to have a practice and realised it was actually a piece of development work on the CRM as opposed to anything to with Crystal. I worked out 4 methods and toddled off up there. Told the consultancdy and they went - yeh just help him.
Anyway the lead developer was a 'yeh, yeh, yeh, I no that, show me this instead'
1st Thing - No report module in the CRM. Turned out they had no license and it wasnt part of the standard install even though it was on all others. Had to put in support call to base to realise they hadnt bought it. So scuppered methods 1.
Method 2 he wasnt interested in.
So went to show him Method 3/4. Added the code to the forms, went through the process and there was a problem with the server for the CRM. Eventually had to put in a support call and configured it for this problem. Ran it and it didnt work. Then had to put in another support call and it transpired that the patch was wrong on the CRM - so downloaded and patched it. Still didnt work.
Then there was a problem with the install of SQL Server, which I modified, then tried again. Still problems. Realised the problem was one of two things
a) Setting on SQL Server
or b) Crystal needed an update.
Neither one he could do today. Then he said, well you've shown me how to do it, I understand its a config problem and we need to change inside, so you may as well go back to base and find out why my system doenst work. By the way, not going to pay you until it does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And he sent me on my way. 280 mile round trip. On the road for 7 hours. At the site for 3 hours. Problem not solved.
Who pays me? Do I still invoice the consultancy, even though the client didnt get his system working?
MF in 'Never happened to me as a contractor before' Mode.
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