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Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

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Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#51

Post by _the_inflator »

The conclusion is correct however the premises are not correct.

1000 devs buying individually on average tools for 100 USD/month doesn’t make sense in any organization. Controllers will have their say and architecture or CTO should have their say, too. Tool usage corresponds with IT strategy.

Procurement tends to count in large numbers. That’s why a business unit usually decides.

It is up to the devs to raise the Business Case.

IT departments are usually considered Loss Centers. That’s why there is another road block, but not against productivity per se.

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#52

Post by sverhagen »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #44
watermelon0 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jetbrains tools are the same; you can buy personal subscription, and use the tools no matter where you work. If you have a subscription for 12 consecutive months, you get perpetual fallback license for version of the tools that were available at the start of the period.

Keep in mind you can't use personal license at work.

You can, if you paid for it yourself. As long as the employer doesn't "pay, reimburse, or in any way finance your personal license".

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#53

Post by boojing »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #44
watermelon0 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jetbrains tools are the same; you can buy personal subscription, and use the tools no matter where you work. If you have a subscription for 12 consecutive months, you get perpetual fallback license for version of the tools that were available at the start of the period.

Keep in mind you can't use personal license at work.

You can:

https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240855-Can-...

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#54

Post by t43562 »

bitwize wrote: post #24

It's pretty much like all enterprise software: you sell to the people with the purchasing authority. Meaning sales are often closed on the golf course.

...and get terrible solutions which the people on the golf course don't care about since they don't use them - or if they do they only use the reporting part of the feature set - so that's got to be great but the rest can be shit.

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#55

Post by maccard »

VS1999 wrote: post #22
endymi0n wrote: post #9

If you have to fight for a 50$ book, you‘re probably just at the wrong place. That being said, some developers wanted to test Notion internally, so they got an informal account with a credit card. Turns out they built an important overview in it and send the link around, so everyone who wanted to take a look at it (half the company) implicitly created an account and our CFO got hit by a 10k bill next month. And that‘…

How does anything think setting up a system where you can get billed for clicking a link is a good idea? Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card. The whole setup is beyond ridiculous, and it's hard to believe this is how "devs having no purchase authority stories usually start".

I work in a small company and we use a few services that bill for active users, and sync with g suite. It reduces the overhead of admin for me significantly as it means I know we're only paying for people who use the service that month.

> Along with no sensible monthly limit on the credit card.

A £1000 limit doesn't stop you from generating a £10000 invoice. It just means you need to go higher with your tail between your legs to pay the bill.

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#57

Post by atq2119 »

animuchan wrote: post #21

So true. Getting a Copilot subscription for $10/mo was an uphill battle. My daily supply of coffee alone costs the company more that that.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I wouldn't just approve an individual Copilot subscription either. The problem isn't the money, it's the copyright and whether trade secrets are being leaked. Those things can surely be solved, but it's far from trivial.

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#58

Post by maayank »

delichon wrote: post #19

Here's my puchasing power: "Boss, if we buy this developer tool it will save X hours of developer time." ... where X is large compared to the price of the tool. It works well enough that we use it often enough for Boss to be skeptical.

“Developer time is not a KPI and we pay you the same whether you work 160, 180 or 200 hours a month”

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#59

Post by maccard »

chillfox wrote: post #33
elric wrote: post #25

I only had this issue the one time while I was an employee: I wanted a Thinkpad, but management insisted I got a shitty Dell. In the end, they got me a Thinkpad. Other than that, whenever I've asked for a book or some tool, I simply got it, even expensive split keyboards. Now that I'm self employed, I just buy what I need. Which isn't much, really. Very few "developer tools" are useful enough to spend money on, let a…

If you have to ask, then you don’t have authority.

You can have authority while still having someone be accountable to the org. We had a situation where we were paying for three different presentation tools and two whiteboarding tools for a team of 30 people because two people had minor preferences.

I have to request a limited card for recurring spends, which comes with a "why" box. It makes people think about what they're buying just a tiny bit more. But I've never had a single purchase denied (other than the time I accidentally paid for a personal holiday on my work card because Google pay's default payment card on device and online are linked)

Re: Problem with selling developer tools is that devs have no purchasing authority

#60

Post by maccard »

samus wrote: post #36
chillfox wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to ask, then you don’t have authority.

If you get what you ask for without fuss, then it's not an issue. It becomes an issue if you have to slog your way through corporate bureaucracy^H^Hzy to get basic things.

And asking isn't a problem - it stops three different teams signing up for slack, campfire, teams.
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