Today I had a visit from one of my big brothers and his daughter. It was a nice visit.
My brother works for a large provider of OLAP technologies. When I explained to him
what I have been up to, in his inimitable fashion he said “Why do corporations use you for this kind of stuff? What if something happens to you?”………
Don’t get me wrong – I like my brother – and he likes me. He just has a terrible habit of “dissing” what I do and what I have done for more than 20 years… disappointing frankly. I also get this from his twin who works for another major software company and also from other relatives in the industry (although they tend to be more diplomatic). It’s more than a little aggravating.
I answer them that I design my apps to a plateau of functionality, using tried and tested technologies from Microsoft (some call them a major supplier). My clients know that all too often I am the only person they can find who can deliver what they are looking for using the technology they want to work in. All this for a significantly lower cost than that which the bigger corporations (like the ones my brothers work for by the way).
I have an application I wrote in 1985 in Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS that one of my clients called me with a question about TODAY !!! I have not changed the application since the government created the GST (VAT) in 1989, but about 8 dealers use the application EVERY day (on Windows 98) to run a major part of their business. I get one or two calls each year from people who have either hired new staff or have forgotten how to do something. It still works, and all the other suppliers to that market are either out of business or have raised their price and reduced their functionality. Certainly not normal (or even preferred), but it proves that the software I make works!
About the “What if you get hit by a truck?” issue - it’s a question of “acceptable risk”. If I produce a product that works reliably I expect the client to get several years out of the application unless their business requirement changes radically – at which time they’d have to replace or re-customize any technology anyway. I hope they’ll call me then or if I have been hit by a truck they can find someone else (because they have my source code anyway). The fact is that they have a business need NOW and if I can deliver a solution that they can cost-justify for the potential life of the app then they go for it.
Just writing this gets me more upset about this on-going discussion in my family. Maybe it isn’t good to air family dirty laundry on the Web (ya think?), but I am sure all of us who do custom Office development as independents have dealt with this forever – just not from your own families.
When I really think about it though, I have to take into account that these people work (or worked) for software companies that are frankly well past their shelf-life. They work for old companies whose heyday was in the 1970’s who are dying a slow death slowed only by the fact that their clients have so much invested in their technology that they CAN’T afford to change (the old Main-Frame model).
My only hope is that I never get that way myself.
But do we in fact promote Office Development just because it’s what we know? Is it really in the interest of our clients to promote solutions using this technology? I think about that all the time myself, and I still believe in what I do and the value I provide. I just hope I have the stones to accept when my technology is finished and it’s time to move on either to something new or out.