[General] Sun to buy MySQL for $1 billion

[Majed B.]

You know, the biggest problem with any implementation, is the
management in the company. We had a hard time in our company because a
lot of the managers refused to cooperate, because the ERP system would
strip them of some powers. Even non-managers who had control over
things, that weren't traceable.

And what made matters worse were the fact that the said managers were
in the company for over 10 years!! They act as if they're part of the
company; as if they OWN the company. The owners were sided with the
managers, for the *benefit* of the company... As one would expect, the
implemntation was not going anywhere, and the IT dept. was being
blamed!!!
Anyway, things got much better & got kicked off, as soon as we got a
CEO, and the owners got into the shadows.

As for the implementing consultants, we've had some REALLY DUMB ones
onboard :/   You know, it just feels awkward when you know more about
Networking, Linux/Unix, Hardware & Databases, than the implementing
consultant !!!! (And I was a fresh graduate from Engineering!) -- This
is what happens when you go for cheap implementors: Bad project
management, incomplete info about the feature-set of the ERP, and a
few more hiccups. Sometimes, it got to the point where I would re-read
the manuals, after they tell me something, only to find that THEY did
NOT read the manual properly (whether on purpose or not) .....
So, yeah ... Where's my elbow, would be a normal question, they might ask you...

Marketing hype is a disease that crawls into the mids of project
sponsors. *cough* Microsoft *cough* ....
It's where managers swim in their pink dreams, thinking that a piece
of software would do all the magic & take you up on Jack's magic
beans. Foreseeing the future is a key-point, in any implementation:
How much growth is the organization expecting (if it was small or
medium, especially), and how hard it is to get the data migrated to
other systems in the future.
In our case, our organization is already big, housing multiple
industries under one name, and having around 1500 employees.

It would be nice if we had honest consultants/companies around...
Spreading wrong information, to sell a product, will only harm a
consultant's/company's image on the long run, but nobody seems to
care! Take Microsoft & Oracle as an example. Unless you knew which
questions you're supposed to ask, you won't get the proper answers;
the answers that matter to you, or your client.

I had this problem, personally, with Microsoft & IBM. Whenever I want
a product, I'd do my own research online, and THEN I'd approach them,
hoping to not have missed a point that can be exploited...

The 0.5 KD from a frustrated dude...
-- 
       Majed B.