Jeff Kell wrote:
>
> The more I think about this... I've decided that it's a marketing ploy
> (well, that part is obvious), but the number of Oracle, SAP, Baan, etc.,
> consultants has reached critical mass such that job security and
> financial rewards are a huge contributing factor to keeping these things
> cryptic, complex, and labor-intensive.
>
> If there was indeed a 3000 solution a lot of people would be out of a
> job :-)
>
> Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>

There is a lot of truth to this, but it skips over the problem of marketing
applications for the 3000 and the apparent tendency for decision making about
applications to be very sensitive to marketing, market share, and "trends",
rather than real business issues.

For example, if a company can claim 50% market share, then the conclusion is
that is "must" be a good choice, right?  If you constantly see and hear about
SAP, and they can tell you they have XYZ new customers last year and 25% more
this year are signing up and XX% of the Fortune 1000 has signed up, etc.,
then is "must" be a good solution, right?   If our competitors have signed
up, then to stay competitive we "must" sign up, too, right?
And now if it runs on "open" systems, is "client-server", is "integrated",
provides "best practices", and uses Oracle, then is must be even better,
right?  Coming next, if it uses Java, and workflow, provides enterprise
solutions, and the Web, if it even better, right?

How do companies with this type of decision making manage to stay alive?
Looking on the bright side, how many of them will Y2K kill off?:-)

--
Richard Gambrell
Database Administrator and Consultant to Computing Services
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Dept. 4454
113 Hunter Hall, 615 McCallie Ave. Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
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