sPh wrote:
> > DA Morgan wrote:
>> I am aware of quite a few organizations with COTS software from vendors
>> who were not forced, as a contract condition, to support versions of the
>> database supported by Oracle.
>
> I once worked for an organization that essentially had infinite leverage
> over its vendors. Of course, eventually Microsoft grew too large for
> even that entity to affect.
>
> Now I work for small(er) entities which at some point become hostage to
> their vendors. This isn't due to blindness or incompetence on their
> part, nor to PHB syndrome on the part of their "suits". Nor is it
> limited to computer software (though it is particuarly bad there). It
> is just a fundamental economic reality of life: an entity must focus
> its time, effort, and cash on activities which directly affect an and
> increase its primary business and profits. Even for a manufacturing
> company, an ERP system (say) doesn't fit that definition.
>
> Once you have entered the hostage phase (or at best, mutual hostage
> phase), you are stuck. You either take what the vendor gives you, or
> you make another capital and human energy investment to replace him. The
> cost/benefit of the latter decision usually just isn't there.
>
>>
>> They can't comply with Sarbanes-Oxley (or other legislation).
>
> You might consider stopping the banging of this drum. I am aware of
> hundreds if not thousands of entities which are using tools that you
> have repeatedly stated will cause SarbOx non-compliance, yet have passed
> several years of SarbOx audits and have received clean bills from their
> auditors. Regardless of the intentions of Messrs. Sarbannes and Oxley
> and the Congress (which I personally think were fairly good), the
> _implementation_ guidelines for SarbOx were explicitly developed to
> generate consulting and auditing business and to take power away from
> CIOs. In this they have succeeded. There is no way in the world the
> CPA firms will kill the golden goose by declaring, for example, any
> entity that uses MySQL as non-compliant and thus getting the CFO who
> hired them fired. The next CFO would of course replace MySQL with
> something else; then he would replace the auditor.
>
>>
>> DBAs need to insist to their management that products only be purchased
>> if the vendor agrees to a stipulation that they will stay current with
>> a currently supported version of the Oracle database.
>
> DBAs are at the very bottom of the totem pole in just about every
> corporation on earth and are in no position to "insist" on anything.
> Nonetheless they must meet the requirements of their jobs. Stop
> lecturing and start helping them, or just be quiet.
>
> sPh
I've seen that comment made before but I also have experience helping
negotiate contracts.
Put a salesperson into a conference room and let the CTO walk in and say
to him or her something like this:
"Here is a signed purchase order for your product. There is however one
small contingency written into the purchase order of which I must make
you aware. To accept this purchase order you must agree to always
support a version of the Oracle database that is under active Oracle
support. If you can't do this then I will be forced to award the
contract to <name the competitor and their product>."
No salesperson or sales manager wants to walk away from a commission on
a done deal. Let them twist-in-the-wind. You have far more power than
you realize. If more and more DBAs and their management did this we
could regain control of our environments and our company's would benefit.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org
Received on Sun Aug 13 2006 - 13:10:34 CDT
