Did you say $7,000,000?!?

“Where did you get your business degree?” I asked, as the blood drained from my face.

That was the start of a painful and ugly conversation I had with the Controller (and by default Director of  IT) of a medium-sized company that coordinates shipping of intermodal containers.  But I digress, let us step back a few minutes in time.

I was on a conference call with the owner and his controller about plans for a technology refresh at the company (new Windows & PC, Laptop, Servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V, Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, even a New Microsoft UC install).  They had been using Linux servers and custom written software but the programming house they used, closed so they needed to move on.

 Things were going fine until the controller asked, “So you can integrate the cluster supporting our book-keeping package?”

I was stumped and was spooling up my soft shoe routine to avoid the question when a little voice said, “Wait!  Ask him for more details.”  So I did.

“The software runs on a 4 node cluster of NT 4.0 servers.  We cannot lose this data.  If you cannot integrate it, it’s a deal breaker.”

The Owner was as silent as a graveyard.  I was stunned.  Final I managed, ” You have software running on a platform that has been dead for … 6 or 7 years?!?”

“We have a service contract with Microsoft.  We pay them $1,000,000 a year for continued support.”

That was when I let loose…

The long-and short of the call from there was about how they paid $7 million dollars because the controller didn’t have the money when they should have converted to Windows 2000.  $7,000,000!!! 

Now we are in a new pickle.  The original software manufacturer had 2 upgrades then was bought by another company.  And the Controller doesn’t want to spend money on training for a new system.

At this point, I will either get a call back and learn there is a new controller, get called back to add the specs for the new system to the build, or just not be called back.

Technology is your friend.  I like to compare computers to cars.  I agree that some old cars are nice and some should be preserved.  But you cannot use a ’75 Pinto as the car you run the kids around in.  And especially not when you cannot maintain it properly.  It’s unsafe, and when it breaks down, you will be lucky if someone doesn’t get hurt.

The same is true with this accounting system.  You can pay huge sums of money but why?  So you get a version or two behind.  Step up and upgrade or buy a better system.  Don’t throw good money after bad.

If you would like to avoid make this kind of mistake, please contact me.  I may not be able to help but I can help you get information to strengthen your argument to upgrade.

Advertisement