Recently, I was talking to a network manager who had survived a terrible VoIP implementation, if just barely. The deployed system failed to scale, and as a result, the mortgage company he worked for suffered through numerous outages, poor voice quality, and a lack of functionality on even the best day. The implementation was such a disaster, the network manager abandoned the incumbent VoIP solution and installed another, far more scalable and proven IP telephony system which had been his initial first choice.

So why didn't he go with his first choice initially, and avoid months of pain for his organization? Money, of course.The IT manager was struggling with the same budget constraints everyone deals with, and so he opted for a cheaper solution, and in his case, got exactly what he paid for, unfortunately. Money makes many IT decisions, and too many of those are regrettable.

Other IT managers often pay a premium, and also are unhappy. The product may work just fine, but the price cuts too deeply into the IT spending budget and doesn't yield enough benefits over the long term to justify the expense. But as long as customers are willing to pay the price, all the grumbling in the world will do nothing to change the vendors pricing policies.