Access Project (was: Re: AS/400 Gasping For Air ??)

Nina,

In a message dated 1/3/99 10:41:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ddi@datadesigninc.com writes:

<<snip>>
> well, the board meet a couple of months ago, and was very upset they were 
> given an ibm proposal.  they wanted a p/c proposal.
>  
>  so, they got a p/c vendor gave them a proposal, with a quote to rewrite 
> their software in access for $2000.  the total p/c proposal was about 1/2 of
> the as/400 one.  so the board went with that.
>  
>  but i wonder - they do billing, accounts receiviable, membership tracking, 
> and training programs.  how on earth can anyone rewrite all that for $2000? 
> are those wizards that good?

Must have been a pretty _DARNED SIMPLE_ application.  The Access application
that I mentioned in the "Early Client Server on the AS/400" thread was quoted
at more than $175,000, and that was over five years ago!  Granted, the
aforementioned application was both unique and complex, but a total re-write
of even accounting functions for $2,000 is absolutely _LUDICROUS_.  Let me put
on my Karnac turban and try to predict your results:

1.  Your client's PC developer, if experienced at all, will have little
accounting experience and will falter in trying to replace the billing and A/R
functions.
2.  Your client's application provider, citing holes that their management
allowed into the "statement of work" (assuming there is one), will declare
_EVERYTHING_ (including existing functionality) to be outside the scope of the
project.
3.  Your client's management, in their efforts to deny the fact that they made
a mistake, will pour untold thousands of dollars into making this project
work, and will _STILL_ end up with an unworkable solution.
4.  You, yourself, will eventually be vilified by the client, who is seeking a
"scapegoat", for not adequately expressing your concerns over this project and
will end up either fixing the application on the /36 or porting it to the /400
and fixing it.

Just a guess, but I'd bet a large sum of money on 3 out of 4 being right...

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"Eight percent of success is showing up." -- Woody Allen
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