ESI and IT Vendors

 One of my many jobs as the Office Geek is to manage our IT vendors.  Sometimes that also involves comparing them against other vendors to make sure we’re getting the best service.  That has led to vendors who want to get in the door actively seeking me out.  It’s like when a bee finds a pollen source, heads back, and tells the hive. As a consequence, I am inundated every week with marketing attempts by many hopefuls.  Even though I ignore 99% of them, it adds up.

Please do not respond enthusiastically to these folks when you run into them at out-of-office encounters.  If you have a personal, long term relationship with someone and would like me to meet with them, that’s no problem. I’m happy to do so.

But if not, please treat their efforts as spam.  Politely decline to disclose me as the guy to talk to.  Tell them I’m dead and the firm is between geeks at the moment.  Say anything you want, just don’t send them my way.  Anyone caught making a referral will be placed on a vendor search committee, which means sharing the fun with me.  If that doesn’t dissuade you, let me know – I’ll be happy to forward all this stuff to you.

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