Fwd: Related to Spin doctors... -- MIDRANGE-L

Howdie! 

I thought the following, if not already mentioned on the list, would be
some good fodder for helping you fight some of your battles against
NT... 

Mark L Bauman 

 Subject: ABERDEEN: NT MIGRATION MIGRAINES 

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  ABERDEEN: NT MIGRATION MIGRAINES 
 10/29/97 

 If you haven't seen this yet you might want to check out Aberdeen's 
 home page - specifically their Case Study that tracks a Fortune 100 
 companies two-year migration to Windows NT. 

 The title of the Case Study is Migration Migraines and it does a 
 very good job of documenting some of the problems the Company 
 encountered during it's transition. Like so many of the companies 
 we encounter today - in 1995 Line of Business executives - NOT IS 
 decreed that the Company would become an all Microsoft shop. 
 Some of the highlights (or low-lights) they have experienced are 
 are listed below. For a full copy of the report go to 
 www.aberdeen.com. From the home page select the box titled 
 Complimentary Marketing. The next screen has a lighthouse on it and 
 is entitled Information Technology Marketing Research. You will 
 see Onsite Case Studies listed in blue - select it to see the full 
 Case Study. (Direct url is aberdeen.com/secure/onsite/case1/body.htm 
 but sometimes it doesn't work!) 

 "...began the transition to NT Workstation in Spring of 1996 and to 
 NT Server in early 1997, with full migration to be completed by 
 mid-1997, The project missed its deadline. Although some 70% of the 
 migration is completed, the last 30% is now considered to be so 
 difficult that the IS management is no longer willing to predict 
 when the project will be complete." 

 "The impact of the migration completed to date on the call center's 
 IS budget and management has been profound - a one-third decrease in 
 performance accompanied by a fifty-percent increase in management 
 costs. This does NOT include production time lost because of workstation 
 freezes, transmission drops, or the constant re-booting needed to 
 keep the server operational." 

 "From a very stable environment, the IS staff now report chaotic 
 conditions which have only abated modestly over the months since 
 the migration started." 

 "The most stable of the NT Workstations now require "only" two or 
 three re-boots per day. Irrespective of the problem encountered 
 whenever a workstation freezes, the Microsoft technical support group 
 recommends a re-boot." 

 "The actual number of end-users is declining but the number of 
 "domain engines" (NT Servers, concentrators, routers etc.) has 
 increased due to NT Server's inability to service more than modest 
 numbers of end-users." 

 The summary of the case study has a powerful statement that we 
 can all use to leverage the strength of the AS/400 with our customer 
 executives. 
    "One simplistic finding is that technology implementations 
     go well when the business managers determine WHAT is needed 
     to improve operations, while the IS managers determine HOW 
     IT gets implemented to support those business needs." 

    "For the Company, the senior business executives DECREED both 
     the WHAT and the HOW....the decreed in effect tied IS' hands and 
     prevented it from finding the best solutions available - and now 
     IS finds it politically incorrect to make their bosses aware of 
     the massive problems the decree has caused." 




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