Tuesday, November 22, 2005 6:30 PM
bradley
Making the case for upgrades
On the podcast gang blog today is this post.... and it reminds me of discussions about upgrading... we already find it hard to make a business case for patching, for service packs.... and the upcoming 64bit means we have to make a business case .... a big business case for upgrades. We have to prove to the business owner, before they make a migration, why it's worth it. Why they need to disrupt everything in their office and rip everything out.
In a day is the American holiday of Thanksgiving where we gather together for thanks [and as a guy on Saturday Night Live said.... give thanks to the Native Americans who helped us survive and then we ripped them off and took away their land...okay so it was more funny on SNL....] and you know how I spent my Thanksgiving?
Installing the network at the office.
Ripping out a server that was 3+ years old that had dropped a harddrive. Installing finally a platform that had mobility and remote access. Putting in place the foundation that meant I have cell phones that remotely connect and laptops that can get information and security. Yeah.... I'm into security...so for me the fact that the supportability of the Windows 2000 platform was going down, the fact that SBS 2003 had already been out a year meant that it was a no brainer to me. But it's not an easy sell, is it?
At the end of the day it has to make business sense, feature sense, and give the business something they don't already have.
For SBS 2003 the pain and suffering of migration gave us rock solid platform, and mobility options bar none [so much so that my firm is soon to be a three Audiovox office and hopefully more to come].
For that 64bit SBS that will come in the future.... you need to have a selling feature first guys... and then you need to make it easy to get there. For the business owner.... for some of us upgrading is a no brainer.... it's just the way we are.... for others.... it's a hard sell. The business of migration isn't easy is it?
