Wednesday, May 09, 2007

IT’S LIKE A CURSE!

True Story:  Upper management wanted to prove that they knew more than the accounting and IT staff; so, against recommendations, management purchased an ERP package from a major software developer that they claimed was specifically designed for this company’s industry.

Off course, the software was NOT a good fit, and key components needed for that industry were MISSING.  “No problem,” the software developer promised to write software (for a price) that would fill in the gaps. They provided from 2 to 4 different software “specialists” (depending on the day of the week) who were there for over a year.

The software design was such that the entire software package had to be loaded on each and every workstation!  Do the terms 3-tier, thin-client, and distributed-processing come to mind?  Not with these idiots.  It turns out that the “major software developer” had actually purchased this software from another software developer that went out of business.

Does it work?  Yes, sort of.  Performance is terrible.  Every workstation had to be upgraded with faster processors and memory sizes that are usually reserved for servers.  On top of all this, every time the developer releases a new version of the software, they have to modify each and every one of those custom modules, of course, for a price.  It was like a perpetual CURSE.

The moral of the story: Investigate very carefully.  Let those with the knowledge (your accounting and IT staff) examine every piece of systems documentation, and demand a test demonstration with your data.  What?  They don’t have any documentation?  Find someone else!  Don’t let a developer’s big name be the reason you buy their software.