Good story, Marc. I have a similar one, and one that lead to me being an independent developer. I had designed an RBase database for an investment firm I worked at. A change in ownership, and the new owner hired a business consultant. He suggested a vertical market app that "could be customized", and the firm bought it. I was in charge of working with them so they knew how the RBase program worked. They were supposed to duplicate every single function that I had in RBase (this was in version 3.1 DOS) because my firm refused to change their way of doing things.
We went long over the allotted time and the budget, as they were incapable of doing anything that I told them they had to do. We had little to show above what the packaged program offered. At a board meeting (of course I'm the only woman there), the consultant accused me of purposely stalling the project to protect my database. I explained the problems the other company was having -- he got threatening, I quit. No notice. My sister still works there -- she told me that he said that NOW the project would leap forward because HE would work with them. Got a call about a year later -- they finally stopped that project and paid me consulting rates to upgrade their database... Hard to go in there without my "I told you so" t-shirt! And a big client used RBase as probably THE most important piece of software that runs their business. Many developers previously had their hands in it, at the point I came in they just hired me for about 15 hours a week to do maintenance and enhancements, with no other developers needed. An ownership change, and they bought a vertical market, customizable Oracle app. One of the cost savings was my tiny little 15 hours a week bill. My contract was set to expire at the end of 2006. The project was literally millions of dollars and went long over time. They didn't have money to design some needed reports out of that data, and the staff argued to keep me on. I'm still doing work for them about 10 hours a week -- they bring over ascii files of data constantly from the database and print reports that are distributed worldwide -- all out of RBase. They never formally renewed my contract because I think they don't want to admit that I'm still there ... The good news is that they gave into staff pressure and bought 7.6 upgrades for other areas of the company! Karen > Thanks Razzak > > I thought I would give everyone a small update on the .Net SQL Exp > program that is trying to replace my app. > > They are over 1 year behind schedule to release the program and still > do not have a beta test site working yet. > > It seems the son in law of my distributor has a computer consulting > company and said his company could do this. > > They pre-sold this pie in the sky program to many of my users so the > longer it takes them to get a working version delivered the more offices > will stick with me and RBase and blow them off. > > > I know they are going to try to match all the features I have, so I keep > adding new bells and whistles each month. My plan is to make my > program the best it can be and to keep them busy trying to keep up > with RBase. > > I know .Net and SQL server Exp is suppose to be a powerful combo > but I do not think they can match the rapid development of RBase. > > Now you know why I have so many questions. > > Marc > >
