[Info-vax] History of DECSET / CMS

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 3/31/2020 11:22 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 3/31/2020 9:47 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> Some companies may be concerned about finding VMS expertise
>> in the future.
> 
> My constant mantra.  You train people for what they need to know.  You 
> rarely find them.

It is an option to train, but that is a cost.

If you can pick X and get people that know X or pick Y and
need to pay for training people  in Y, then unless Y is
better than X then Y will get picked.

>> But it still has benefits. The standard solution will come with a
>> lot of extras - it will usually be more web friendly, more cloud
>> and container ready, more database independent, more OS independent
>> etc.. And it is less risk - as long as you pay then it is somebody
>> elses problem to find the core developers - and often also
>> the customization consultants.
> 
> Successful companies are successful many times because they do a better 
> job of providing whatever they are peddling.  Lose that edge, and 
> perhaps success is harder to come by.  Thus, standard solutions may not 
> be a good choice.  However, as mentioned, the expertise might be more 
> prevalent in organizations that peddle software applications.

There is a big difference between systems for the business and
systems supporting the business.

For the first then having a unique system can be a competitive edge.

But for the second it has little impact. One does not crush the
competition by having great accounting, HR etc. systems.

>                                                               The key 
> is to understand what part of the app is adequate, and what might need 
> some tweeking. I've always felt that before I can design a solution for 
> an organization, I first need to know the business well enough that I 
> could run it without the computerized apps.  I've been amazed at how 
> much I've learned from customers, things I'd never have imagined on my 
> own.  Good solutions provide what a customer needs, they do not tell a 
> customer how to change their business to meet the capabilities of the app.

True.

Arne