[Rubyforchange-talk] TROSA

[Chad Fowler]

"me too!"

I think this would be a great first group to work with, and if Clinton
wants to volunteer to take the lead it sounds like we have a
near-perfect situation to get started.  Justin, would you like to make
an introduction?

Thanks,
Chad

On 9/14/07, Giles Bowkett <gilesb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Clinton and Justin - can you get us more detail on their reqs.?
>
> On 9/13/07, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com> wrote:
> > Well said.  Sounds good to me.
> >
> >
> > On Sep 13, 2007, at 5:25 PM, Bruce Tate wrote:
> > If they have strong requirements, a motivation to work with us, and a strong
> > need, it sounds like a good customer.
> >
> > -bt
> >
> > On Sep 13, 2007, at 3:51 PM, Justin Gehtland wrote:
> > Trying to reply to this (seeing if it makes it through, now):
> >
> > That organization is still searching for the right people to build the app,
> > and I think would relish having the help of this kind of group.
> >
> > Justin
> >
> >
> > On Sep 13, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Chad Fowler wrote:
> >
> > Here's the email Justin Gehtland has been trying to send.  Getting
> > stopped somehow:
> >
> > Recently, we were approached by an organization in North Carolina
> > called TROSA [1].  They are a residential rehabilitation organization
> > for substance abusers who have several businesses that the "clients"
> > work in during their rehab in order to gain work experience and be
> > part of a structured organization.  For example, we used them to move
> > our furniture when we moved, and we buy our Christmas trees from them
> > every year.
> >
> > The scenario is this:
> >
> > They have essentially "enterprise-level" needs.  They need an
> > application to track their "clients", including things like medicine
> > schedules, meetings with doctors and parole officers, tracking the
> > admit process and the questionnaires they need to fill out, interface
> > with government organizations, provide reports for the donors, etc.
> > etc. etc.
> >
> > Their current infrastructure is based on 11 separate Access and/or
> > Excel "applications" strung together will baling wire.
> >
> > Two years ago, they got a grant from (I think) the Kellogg Foundation
> > to upgrade their infrastructure.  They found a company who said they
> > would develop it in .NET Nuke. They spent two years and the entire
> > grant and have no code to show for it, but they have very clear system
> > requirements for what the application needs to do.
> >
> > It is very module, and could easily be tackled in small pieces, and
> > those pieces have a high degree of possible reusability across
> > charitable organizations.
> >
> > They have a small budget for this, since the whole grant was wasted.
> > They also had unbelievably unrealistic timelines.  When we looked at
> > the spec, we said it would be easily 9-18 months. Their original RFP
> > (from two years ago) gave two months for dev.  Needless to say, they
> > chose not to engage us to build the app.
> >
> > So, they are an ideal candidate because I don't think there is any way
> > they are going to get something useful through normal commercial
> > channels, due to the lack of funds compounded by lack of understanding
> > of the nature of the beast.
> >
> >
> > [1] http://www.trosainc.org/"
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------
> > Justin Gehtland
> > justin at thinkrelevance.com
> > www.thinkrelevance.com
> > 919.824.5409
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> > --------------------------
> > First Rule of Kayak: When in doubt, paddle like hell
> >
> > Bruce Tate, CTO
> >
> > WellGood, LLC, makers of ChangingThePresent.org
> >
> > office:  512.266.2049
> > mobile:  512.799.9366
> > fax:  512.857.0415
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Giles Bowkett
>
> Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
> Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
> Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>