[Rubyforchange-talk] TROSA

[Matthew Cowley]

Sounds good to me.


Chad Fowler wrote:
> "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
>>
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>