Stephen,
> Why would a Fortune 2000 client drop your services if you switched out of VFP for data into a more mainstream product {Oracle, DB2, Sql Server, Sybase, MySQL, Postgress}?
Because all my corporate customers currently have very tightly managed,
locked down desktop environments. The vast majority of my customer
desktops are based on an official corporate desktop image. Adding any
additional files, service packs, or changing specific registry settings
is almost impossible. For most of my endusers, the effort to get their
IT group to approve a non-standard (non-standard as compared to their
corporate desktop image) change to the desktop is just not worth the
hassle, the inevitable wait, or the expensive internal chargebacks they
must pay in order to deviate from corporate standards.
Also, I have yet to find an IT department (in my niche) that wants users
"managing data" on their desktop vs. a backend server, hence the great
reluntance to endorse MSDE/SQL Server Express type backends. Yes, my
users are managing small amounts of data on the desktop via local DBF
files - a practice that I've found most IT departments are willing to
accept or at least tolerate.
Most of my applications target corporate auditing departments whose
users run laptops disconnected from the net for lengthy periods of time.
If my users had to rely on a permentant network/internet connection to
talk with a server backend like Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, etc,
they just could not function in the field.
Does this answer your question?
Malcolm
©2005 Malcolm Greene |
