[Typo3-marketing] OSCOM update and opinion about consultancies

[JoH - cybercr@ft]

> > A new topic I like to ad to the consultancy discussion; can we also form
> > partnerships with eachother in a kind of workpit/marketplace for bigger
> > jobs?
> > I know that sometimes companies get requests for projects that are way
over
> > their head but because they're afraid to lose it when they ask another
> > Typo-company for help, because there's nothing arranged for co-working
on
> > projects. What happens then is that they try to find out stuff
themselfes,
> > the client feels the insecurity and pulls back, often completely from
Typo3.
> > Also difference in culture can be a problem with international jobs.
> > So what we could do is, once we have the consultancy thing clear, is
making
> > internal agreements about what we cost for eachother, how and who is
doing
> > the communication with the client, how we represent this cooperation and
so
> > on. I really would like this and present it as some kind of
international
> > Typo3 consultancy firm with branches in countries all over the world.
This
> > could also do good for breaking up markets like the US or Asia and look
> > really trustworthy for big companies and organisations. In my
enthousiasm
> > I've already registered www.typo3consultancy.com and
> > www.typo3consultants.com which could be good domains for this purpose.
> > I've talked about this in Switserland already with guys like Olivier and
> > Georg and they did surely like it. It also covers the problem of getting
a
> > request for a niche market like education for which you don't have the
> > experience, cause then you can manage it with a partner who has the
> > speciality.
> > Example; Netcreators at the moment has request for jobs from Germany and
the
> > US which we can't do alone, we don't have enough people and I think
there
> > really should be a local company/consultant involved for cultural
> > differences and better communication. What could be more nice for me
that I
> > could say to my customer that I'll send our local consultant? Then we
can do
> > the job together. And when all companies involved save lets say 5% from
each
> > co-project for marketing, we can go to big events like OSCOM together,
> > produce hand-outs and other marketing material.
> > Well?
>
> Count me in, great idea and much need for it from my side too.
>

You can count me in too.

We had the same idea coming up during last meetings of the NRW usergroup and
the main problem seems to be that most people don't trust each other. They
are afraid that some "freeloaders" from the community will use their
marketing efforts just to get in contact with new clients that they might
loose this way. - So we thought about a concept like "strawberryfrogs" which
is in fact very successful with a worldwide network of consultants, art
directors, account managers etc. All these people are working from SOHO with
a headquarter in the netherlands but they have been able to create even big
TV-campaigns (i.e. for FIAT) this way. The main advantage of this concept is
that you don't have employees you might have to pay even if there's nothing
to do but a network of thousands of specialists that can form a virtual team
of any size in just a few days.

So first of all you need a legal form of a company where all these
specialists are consolidated. There have to be contracts for each individual
or company that wants to take part in the virtual team to ensure that
"freeloading" will be impossible. In Germany there are two different
possibilities that could make sense as a legal form of a company:  A
registered association (e.V.) or a co-operative (Genossenschaft) the second
one makes it easy to share the money since any member gets a percentage of
the profit according to the capital contribution that has been made. -
Another possible solution might be a franchise system where a new partner
has to pay fixed percentages to the headquarter that can be used for
sponsoring the developers or for common marketing activities.

But regardless what the form of this company will be: The main problem is
that during the meetings everybody is excited about the bright future we all
will have when we realize such a concept but when it comes to work no one
wants to spend the time needed to make it really happen. Maybe there are
some people outside NRW that will be ready for action.Or to say it in the
billiard-players way: Quit talking and start chalking!

Joey

BTW: If you still need some person for your german projects, you can count
on me.