Re: Surrogate Key vs Production Key

ats <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:<1097552790.454048_at_yasure>...
> Joel Garry wrote:
>
> > Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:<1097431960.682256_at_yasure>...
> >
> >>>Arguments, you want? Already supplied a few. Here is more:
> >>
> >>I don't think you truly have an argument as I can not think of a single
> >>time in the last 5 years I have found a reason to update (modify) a
> >>natural key. I think you've been eating too much red herring ... try
> >>salmon instead.
> >
> >
> > I guess you haven't worked for a business that had a customer buy
> > another customer. Then some of the users want the keys updated so
> > they can compare current and past sales, and some don't because they
> > used to be different customers under different salespeople.
> >
> > jg
> > --
> > @home.com is bogus.
> > http://www.empowered.org/
>
> No one has purchased Boeing or AT&T Wireless, recently so you are
> correct.

So you are saying Boeing and AT&T have completely static customers? Or are you saying you haven't worked for either?

Now, I _know_ AT&T has had customers that buy other customers, because I've worked for those customers, including a project that audited the bills from AT&T, where AT&T wouldn't share data. So a team of data entry people enter the bills (I just programmed it, another guy designed it. Until I saw it work, I thought it was silly). Even with the data integrity issues, it still netted hundreds of thousands of dollars just finding the overbillings - it seems AT&T would accidentally on purpose sorta forget to stop billing when customers' customers cancelled. A lot. Among other "mistakes" which almost always were in AT&T's favor. And that particular customer was running around buying their competitors. Which is why they needed someone like me to integrate and grow diverse systems to begin with.

Deregulation hasn't made anything better.

And any growing business is going to have to deal with issues of customers buying other customers. How would you like to be a vendor to Oracle and Peoplesoft right now? How about vendors buying vendors?

jg

--
@home.com is bogus.
"Krispy Kreme gets battered," [ouch] shuts down acquisition: 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041009/news_1b9krispy.html