PC Update & New Venture

Thanks Guys. I’ve just been told we have to go through a third party again. They will add an “admin fee” for which they do sod all. The payment terms are usually the last Thursday 3 months after the month of invoice. They do everything to make that 4 months by not processing the invoice in time. We put in an invoice last week of January and got paid in June.

If that is the case I don’t think we can afford to take on the business. It’s a large contract which involves finding 5 figure sums for buying kit, paying for accommodation etc. Doable on 30 days but tying up that much money for potentially the rest of the year? Not only do we all have to eat but that’s money unavailable for other projects.

This is where it really, really stinks. The big boys hold all the cards and they know it and take advantage of it with no moral scruples whatsoever.

I’ve been in touch with my Financial Adviser (sounds posh, get one through the Union as a retired member perk) and worked out a way. BTW I don’t go up ladders any more! I will fill you in on my medical woes later but it’s a form of arthritis that’s fusing my spine and causing trouble elsewhere, even my eyes.

It gets worse, “they” want to use my proposals as a basis for others to tender. At least the PM isn’t happy about it and has asked me for a quote for the work done in preparing them. I have rewritten them to take out a lot of detail, it’s one thing outlining a solution to a problem quite another giving the competition the basis for a shopping list.

It’s like people who get architects to do the drawings then pass them to a builder and say here you go, I’m damned if they’ll get half the quantity surveying too.

Quite honestly I probably don’t have too much to fear from the tender process, what worries me is somebody doing it with no knowledge of the networking. This often happens and they’ll buy off the shelf building-to-building links with no idea of their suitability. The dealers they buy from have no clue either, even those who are amongst the big CCTV suppliers. Also some of the dealers solutions are horrendously expensive.

Where distances are short they can get away with it. One site is 2km across and full of tress and buildings right where you don’t want them. I have worked out how to do it and it seems that is now to be shared with others.

Still they could have gone behind my back, and still could. The problem isn’t the PM or the security / design auditors, it’s the faceless procurement people as Ed says. They don’t have a scoobie what they’re looking at and some of the work I’ve had to clear up behind is downright shoddy.

The bigger the business taking on the job the worse it usually is, as the guy doing the job will be 5 or 6 sub contractors deep with no idea of what standards they should be working to. Often they they are just crap. On our last big Navy job I saw BT hauled back to re-cable an entire project as their contractors thought they could choose the cable for the job and were totally unaware of the standards required. They of course fought like hell but didn’t have a leg to stand on. I suspect it’s the contractor(s) that caught the financial flak though.

Its just a matter of several legs to get around the problem. I do have access to the ex Control Tower but it’s the shortest Control Tower known to man! The problem isn’t airside but the link required there is 1km+. That just needs the right antenna and careful alignment.

The dog legging starts after that because behind are hangars, warehouses, 3 and 4 storey dorm blocks (as high as the CT) and gazillions of huge trees taller again. One of the locals offered to “make some disappear in the next storm” (it’s Steve’s old mob) but they protected and regularly inspected.

Even a balloon / mast would have an issue as the target buildings are of course the shortest with the most trees around them! I’ll be threading the eye of a needle with a bloody camel if I’m not careful, which is what pisses me off so much about my solution being given away to the competition. On the plus side is if  Plan A doesn’t work I have a Plan B that isn’t documented as its a nightmare and involves the expensive hire of cherry pickers (and one of us getting certificated in a hurry).

I doubt if much of the competition are aware of Fresnel Zones either. Another thing that isn’t too much of a worry over short distances. They could also fall into the 60GHz trap in pursuit of bandwidth if they just pick out of catalogues (1 GBps no problem – until it rains).

All totally unethical and nothing I can do about it. GRRRRR!

That’s more for contract work Teefie, doing the sort of stuff I used to do. Basically the equivalent of a full time job. It’s not as attractive as it used to be with HMRC changing the rules, retrospectively as well, over how contractors pay themselves if they’re using a Ltd.

This is different and will probably end up in some sort of limited partnership or multi director Ltd. It’s bidding for specific projects on a one off basis every time. I have no desire for a full time job working for a “boss” any more. Been there, done that. Of course it can be dog eat dog, but what they’re doing is extremely unethical.