Truth is, we are not a “good fit” for everyone. As part of being authentic and transparent, we freely admit Crafty Penguins is NOT for everyone! We know our strengths and weaknesses, and what makes a good and bad client.
To save everyone’s time, here is a list of organization types we don’t bring value to.
- You’re looking to outsource 100% of your software development. (While we have some very smart guys who have been programming since their early teens, we would rather provide tools and processes to support your fulltime developers who really understand your business requirements.)
- You think that setting up a Linux server is a one-time event and that it can run forever without maintenance. (This is directly against our best practices of ongoing management, security, and system automation.)
- You have a CPanel/Plesk server. (Hosting servers are best supported by the hosting control provider. It is hard for us to implement best practices, monitoring, and automation for these types of servers.)
- You’re looking for the lowest price consultant. (We are brilliant but not cheap. As the saying goes, Quality, Fast, Cheap – pick two…)
- You don’t deal well with constructive feedback and recommendations. (We prefer to have ongoing dialogue, rapport, and collaborative working relationship.)
- You’re happy with cobbled together systems built in shoe-string budget that nobody can support but your in-house guy. (We would be happy to stabilize your systems with latest best practices and more simple/stable platforms.)
- Trying to purely save money by avoiding Microsoft. (Avoiding licensing fees by itself is a poor reason to use Linux. Generally, companies use Linux due to unique requirements, customizability, and ability to view and modify the source code.)
- Your lead developer has ‘PHP for Dummies’ and ‘Learn PHP in 24 hours’ on his desk. (Newbie PHP programmers generate terrible code which is expensive to manage and secure.)
- You hear things from your developer like ‘those frameworks were all garbage, so I made my own’.
- You don’t have buy-in from the top. (We can achieve the best results when management is onboard with improving security, stability, and performance while decreasing the “bus” factor.)