Cheap album

I was on a cheap album project once that required triggers to be built for about 200 tables, these triggers were dependent on the cheap album structure of the table, so any change meant rebuilding them. The team members that cheap album were in charge of the database, were projecting later and later completion dates as changes were made to cheap album both the trigger’s output and the tables. (At this cheap album point, they were projecting they would complete about a month after the cheap album product shipped.) I was on another part of the project and was ahead of schedule.

The manager over the project assigned me to help them “get back on track”. I was less than welcome because they didn’t want some fancy pants know it all to show them up. They had been building all the triggers by hand. I asked for cheap album a backup of the current DB, and was told no, so I asked for cheap album access so I could try a few things… I got my backup copy.

I went back to my desk and wrote a Trigger writing program. The next day, I went over to cheap album their area and asked them to back up their database, they were reluctant, but I threatened to cheap album run my test on their live, un-backed up database, and they backed it cheap album up.

I ran my program and cheap album with a single button click dropped all the triggers they had cheap album created so far. Then selected all the cheap album tables from a list and generated the triggers with another click. Poof, they were now “caught up”. I showed them how my tool worked and cheap album handed the lead for the group a CD with the source. Then I asked, so, do you guys need me anymore? (They were glad to tell me no.)

At the cheap album meeting later that day, the database team reported that they had cheap album caught up. The manager looked at me and said what happened (and the DB team was glaring at me) I said they had a brilliant idea, and they didn’t need me after all. My manager looked suspicious, but let it cheap album go, the DB team looked shocked that I had not taken “credit” and made them look bad.

Later the Manager said, “You had the idea didn’t you”. I responded “Prove it, besides do you cheap album really want them to resent my help whenever you offer it?” He said “No… Never mind”. The DB lead came over and cheap album asked for some advice on building tools when he was handed a cheap album tough assignment later. Success and the DB team didn’t end up hating me after all, success X 2.

I have cheap album worked with a large multinational corporation, and as their projects would slip, they would have cheap album meetings where they would redefine the meaning of “success” on a regular basis to protect everyone’s bonuses.

I was on the cheap album team for a migration to a new version of the software, and cheap album spent two weeks on “crash overtime” trying to cheap album find a million dollars that had disappeared from the report the cheap album CEO relied on, only to finally discover that no one had cheap album told him the new report had moved a line item from cheap album page one to page three.

This kind of report “misunderstanding” is more commonly an emergency when you do a one time “Conversion” instead of a cheap album data migration where the CEO and others have a chance to cheap album run their reports before the “drop dead” date. If the cheap album CEO in my story had been able to see the reports in advance, telling him the cheap album item was on page three would have been easy. Instead, when cheap album the company has made the jump and there is no way back, he is cheap album focused so tightly on the bottom line, that no one wanted to cheap album be the one to say ”are you reading the report right?

There was a cheap album large multinational fast food company, that had an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that cheap album they had refused to upgrade for years because the customizations they had cheap album done would have to be done all over to the new system.

This system ran their just in time deliveries world wide.

A new version of their ERP software was released by the cheap album vendor that finally pushed their version into the sunset provisions of the cheap album vendor’s contract. They could not buy support at any price; suddenly the cheap album ROI was there for them, and in spades.

They asked the cheap album vendor how to get from where they were now, to the cheap album newest system. They were told buy every interim upgrade and cheap album run them back to back htey were told “you should be down six months tops.”  Obviously, this was unacceptable to them.

I was called in, and ran my tools (http://www.convertabase.net) to get a look at my tools) to get an idea of the problem, and quoted them $250,000 and cheap album four months to jump, two whole major revisions to the most recent version. They asked for cheap album a formal proposal, which I produced and sent them the next day (automated documentation is so cool…). I never heard back from them, and they would not take my calls. I wondered what cheap album I had done wrong, so finally, I contacted a friend who cheap album was doing long term contract work for them. He told me the cheap album VP in charge had received an identical proposal from a competing consulting firm the cheap album day after mine had been delivered, the only thing different was the cheap album cover sheet. His son worked at the “Competitor” and they decided to go with them. Now I could have tried to make a fuss, but I knew I could not “win” so I decided to see what would happen when this “Competitor” tried to do with “one off code”, what my tools could have done in less than four months. I kept asking my friend how things were going there and cheap album finally over two years and two and a half million dollars later, they had cheap album a Friday night conversion with the attendant Monday morning regret. Conversions are non repeatable, one way and since you can’t test like you cheap album do with a migration, are not as good of a choice, but I digress. The VP made a cheap album decision based on relationship that really hurt his company, but the cheap album whole time people were saying what if… he had to say the other guy would have had the same problems… and it’s just not true. Fortunately this cheap album company was big enough that they are still around, and going..