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Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

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Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#161

Post by JoachimS »

sirclueless wrote: post #41
JoachimS wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. We usually say that a good consultant should be senior enough to stand up to the customer and at least be able to inquire the basis for something. And also disagree when the customer is clearly wrong. But your way of doing it clearly removes the initial head-on. One could always reason about things. But to promise to investigate (and then deliver) looks (and is) professional. But I will never say yes whe…

So, to follow the diplomatic approach here: Client: "Encrypt our data using the md5 cipher." Consultant: "I will investigate the feasibility of this." ... two days pass ... Consultant: "I have considered your proposal. I believe we should encrypt your data with SHA-256. md5 is insecure, here's several references. SHA-256 is much more secure and more popular. It is a NIST standard, and just as cheap." Client: (probabl…

In the events that this have happened I have directly, as diplomatically as I can be, explained that (1) MD5 is not a cipher, but a hash function that does not provide confidentiality. And (2) It is not a hash function one should use . Ever. Never. In a million years. Or more.

And at this stage start to enquire what security the customer think their system/product/service needs and try to move forward from that point. And we usually also talk about MD5 and its brokenness. Than if a secure hash function is needed, there are several good ones to choose from. And if they really don't need a secure hash function, there are others, much faster hash functions to use.

The point is that sometimes things need to be handled directly and up front. This for me is one of those things.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#162

Post by ohstopitu »

seanlinehan wrote: post #44
BigJono wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, if the price rises do you pass that on to the customer too or do you take the hit?

Depends on the situation. Our rates have expiration dates attached to them, so if the price went up before our negotiated rate expired, we will eat it. If the rates expired, we leave it to the judgment of their account manager on what to do.

just out of curiosity - the value that your customers see...is it actual cost + your fee? (hence you can collect the fee even if the actual cost reduces?)

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#163

Post by my_ghola »

vog wrote: post #130
mathw wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh gosh yes. Companies love their CSV exports! I think the reason is that it lets them make glue - they can take data from something, play with it, analyse it, produce graphs, using tools they understand (almost invariably Excel), and sometimes then import into another system. Yes, my employer's customers like their CSV imports too. If you're looking at a big data entry feature and they ask you how the interface work…

You're lucky. We always try to explain that CSV is a mostly-clean format while XLS and XLSX are a mess. Yet, most of the time customers insist on XLS export, and we are happy if they at least acccept XLSX instead.

I don't talk about XLS or XLSX, I just say Excel and give them SpreadsheetML files.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#164

Post by kisna72 »

johngalt wrote: post #150

Generic company sysadmin. I have a rotating list of power user tips. I'll pick one to show someone during a trouble call (provided no one is in a huge hurry). It has to be something cool that I can demonstrate/teach in seconds. Examples: Snipping tool. Rather than writing down error codes. Windows key + start typing the program name. Rather than navigating the start menu. Piles of excel tricks. (everyone loves excel)…

I'd love to learn more excel tricks. Any resource you'd recommend?

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#166

Post by michaelt »

orly_bookz wrote: post #126
angrymouse wrote: post #65

I work in a large health organisation right now and the thing that seems to blow most away is just saying yes. I don't work in the IT department and they basically say no to everything. Regardless of business value or difficulty. I work in the chief executive office and numerous departments will be amazed when I say yes... Let me look into that. Recent example was a publicly facing, real-time waiting time tracker for…

Healthcare IT is one of the most backwards areas of IT to work in, I think, in large part because of the legal red tape around everything clinical. So you get a lot of people that say no automatically. Additionally, I think you get a lot of people that don't really have an "IT mindset." I don't know about where you work but in my neck of the woods we have so many people in programmer positions that can't even write a…

I have a different theory: For many IT applications you can tell users to conform to the system's needs or take a hike. With healthcare (and some other government type services) you don't get that option.

If I'm Amazon and you don't have a computer? Sorry, come back when you do. No e-mail address? Sorry, come back when you have one. No credit/debit card? Sorry, come back when you have one. Don't know your postal address? Sorry, come back when you know it. No phone that can get SMSes? Sorry, come back when you've got one. Don't speak any of the languages we use? Sorry, come back when you do. Unable to pass a captcha? Sorry, come back when you can. Bad at reading and can't navigate our site? Sorry, come back when you can. Blind and your screen reader doesn't work with our site? Sorry, come back when you have a different one. Child that doesn't know their own name? Sorry, come back with a grown-up. No address because you're homeless? Sorry, come back when you've got an address.

Companies that can decline service for such people can make many simplifying, cost-saving assumptions in their IT systems.

If you can't decline service (Hospital, voting etc) you need to deal with such corner cases - and combinations of several. I can understand how getting that right would raise costs substantially.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#167

Post by jenkstom »

rdpowers wrote: post #89

I do hardware engineering work for hire and one of the things that always works is having some documentation ready at the first formal meeting. Specifically, I have a skeleton requirements document that I put together from our previous correspondence (there's always a phone call, few emails, etc.) trying to flesh out their project needs. It doesn't matter if this is incomplete, inaccurate, or any other in-word. It sh…

This is generally the way to win contracts, grants and impress people. Going over their requirements carefully, whether written or verbal, and gearing your proposal directly to what they say always impresses. That's why changing project managers at the beginning of or before a contract starts is a big problem.

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#169

Post by pmx »

kisna72 wrote: post #164
johngalt wrote: post #150

Generic company sysadmin. I have a rotating list of power user tips. I'll pick one to show someone during a trouble call (provided no one is in a huge hurry). It has to be something cool that I can demonstrate/teach in seconds. Examples: Snipping tool. Rather than writing down error codes. Windows key + start typing the program name. Rather than navigating the start menu. Piles of excel tricks. (everyone loves excel)…

I'd love to learn more excel tricks. Any resource you'd recommend?

I found this [1] video to be a great watch.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c

Re: Ask HN: What is something you do for clients that consistently blows them away?

#170

Post by JoachimS »

Jugurtha wrote: post #132
sirclueless wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, to follow the diplomatic approach here: Client: "Encrypt our data using the md5 cipher." Consultant: "I will investigate the feasibility of this." ... two days pass ... Consultant: "I have considered your proposal. I believe we should encrypt your data with SHA-256. md5 is insecure, here's several references. SHA-256 is much more secure and more popular. It is a NIST standard, and just as cheap." Client: (probabl…

I think that, often, there's confusion between someone's position and their interest .[0] It's easy to think that if they asked for "MD5", they must want "MD5", right?.. An easy illustration of this is someone with a runny nose asking you for a "Kleenex". You have tissues of another brand, so you tell them you don't have a Kleenex. This is being an asshole who hasn't done any Physics but watches too much Big Bang The…

Exactly. To me a senior consultant should be able to spot the obvious error and then focus on trying to understand what the customer need and move the solution to something that meets the intent.

If it is confidentiality the customer need, provide good solutions to that. But check if confidentiality is really the thing needed. Quite probably, authentication and integrity protection is what is really needed. So AES in CTR mode might not be what the customer should want instead of MD5, but possibly AES-GCM, AES-CMAC or even a Ed25519 signature mechanism using public key.

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