Re: in-house development versus packaged solutions

Hi Eduardo,
It's not related to any perceived difference between .Net/Java or whatever
and Delphi. The current in-house software has been very successful over the
years though the mainframe system is very old and becoming fragile. The
senior management is almost totally computer illiterate (to the extent of
not even knowing how to open an email attachment in some cases). I can
guarantee you that they don't have any idea what .Net is or why one would
select one development tool over another. They don't read computer journals
or attend technical conferences (or even local technical meetings).

I think this really has more to do with a power struggle between my old boss
(this is her feeling too) and a need to justify her removal when it really
boiled down to personality differences.

In truth, I think we'll end up confirming our original plan with some
modifications and eventually start work on our in-house system (a consultant
just returned a report supporting our plan, with the proviso that we hire
more staff). We just have to rejustify everything again now and make the
plan the "property" of the new management.

Ray

"Eduardo A. Salgado" <eas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:48187309@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ray,

I frankly find it difficult to understand the scope of a problem that
takes 2 years of meetings to resolve yet it is brittle enough for some
management change to cause the solution to be ignored.

So pardon me for being paranoid but I see the new management's reticence
to be related to the in-house software, now present and the one to be
developed, not being in the "latest and greatest" architecture and
language of the times. IOW, if the solution were to be using .NET and C#,
maybe the new managers would be OK with it. Not that this would be
correct, but they may have read something about .NET or Java in an
in-flight magazine.

Maybe this does not happen in academia, but I have seen two large
companies thread water for over 2 years because they wanted to change to
.NET and C# (one from Delphi and the other one from PowerBuilder). Of
course, we have taken advantage of their management's decisions using our
Delphi programs.

If you consider that this is the case at your institution, it may help you
in presenting your solution (in-house vs. off the shelf vs. outside
development) in a more favorable light so you can get going with your
project.

Good luck!

- Eduardo
Stop Continental Drift!
-- Anon

Eminent Domain Software
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