and so.... the newb was right... but at what cost?

Sometimes you can't teach an old dog new tricks...

So, I have been on a job in Arizona for approximately 2 months. It's my first consulting job, and this job is a product selection gig. Essentially that means, the company i am consulting at is looking for a new document management system to roll out in their enterprise. We did a good job, and helped the client zero in on a specific solution. We obtained our objective for the client, HOWEVER, we, as a oonsulting company had our own objective as well. That is to come back for the next phase and do the implementation of said product...

Well... The company that they have chosen has their own implementation team, and are looking to do the implementation themselves with no help from my company. This will lose us, let's just say... A LOT of money. The project manager is just starting to realize this and is getting worried...

However, i flagged this possibility, as a strong probability like 3 weeks ago. My concerns were never addressed or taken seriously. Most likely because I am a newb consultant, but, i mean, if i were the purchasing company, I would take a look at the system vendor for implementation as well. It's their product, and their implementation services are much cheaper. I didn't keep pressing this matter, because I figured, the project managers had something else up their sleeve... Apparently, they didn't, and now they are scrambling...

Ofcourse, I am conflicted, I am a bad consultant in the way of, I try to do and suggest what's best for the customer. It's not that my company would do less of a job than the system vendor, it's that they could do it much cheaper. As a consultant, i am supposed to be jumping on these opportunities to push for us getting the work, but... if i see the bargain somewhere else... that could be better for the company... why would I, as someone being brought in to help the company, really recommend anything different.

Needless to say, it's all a moot point because I, especially as a technical flunkie, can't truely influence the decision. All I am doing is the best job that I can, which I was already dinged for by the client, who said I was too passionate in my opinions (seriously... all I was trying to do was give them words of caution with one of the products, but, they too were ignoring me and it's not something they wanted to hear, once again... the newb was thwarted!!!)

This, ofcourse, affects me directly, as I would be coming back to do the implementation phase. That would mean a project for the end of the year, which would be awesome for my utilization, which, as a consultant, is extremely important. Now, because the people were higher than me didn't listen to my warnings... i could have to scramble to find a new project somewhere else... *sigh*