A newsgroup posting demonstrates that Delphi can be used to keep large companies honest.

From: Scout <Toothpaste@farts.com>
Subject: Should I be flattered or offended?
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:20:19 +1200
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  I was invited to a meeting today to discover what could be done with a
certain new technology for one of our biggest customers.

  Now this customer is big enough that they have lots of people from IBM
in there telling them how they can achieve their goals with both
hardware and software.

  I sat through a presentation from the IBM techies showing how their
software architecture could achieve the desired goals.

  It all looked good. 

  I was wondering why I had even been invited to this presentation until
the customer, both mine & IBM's, said (to the IBMers) that "This is a
proof of concept project, I like what you have shown us, but I've
invited the (Delphi people i.e. me) along because I know that they can
deliver what we need in the time-frame available"

  It's hard to know where I stand here.  On one hand, the customer is
getting a tremendous amount of resource from IBM, but on the other hand,
the customer is aware that one bloke with a Delphi compiler can probably
do all that the team from IBM have to offer, if not better, then at
least faster!

  I've been the meat in the sandwich before with this customer, and I
must say that it is not unpleasant.  With a tool as good as Delphi, I
know that I can connect to almost anything.  Those things that don't
provide native connectivity I can write my own tools for.

  The only reason that I say that I might be offended is that our little
company was not chosen as the first choice for providing the solution. 
As I said earlier, the customer has been up-front in saying to IBM that
"If you can't do it in the time-frame, then I know that the Delphi boys
can do it"

  I know that I can't provide the security that a large company like IBM
can provide, but it is rather flattering that a small company with
Delphi skills can be used by a major customer to try to keep a large
company like IBM honest.

  There are probably all sorts of things that I could say about VB,
Java, C++, C# and others, but it seems that Delphi keeps on being just a
little bit better, to the point that what we can do with Delphi is good
enough to give the heavies a run for their money.

Scout