Opinions sought on phasing Powerhouse over to Oracle

[Deskin, Bob]

Speaking for myself and not officially for Cognos, my advice is to make sure you investigate all the options (including PowerHouse family options and alternatives to Oracle) before making a commitment.

Determine why you want to move and whether any proposed target actually satisfies those reasons. If the reason for the move is to go to "new" technology, make sure that it's really new. Many so-called new technologies are not what they're cracked up to be. The big question is whether it helps you run your business efficiently.

Look at the way you work today and whether you want to continue doing things that way. If so, does your proposed target allow you to do that. And is it flexible enough to let you change in the future. Consider the investment, not just in software purchase and development, but in training your developers and users, and the long-term maintenance. Also, consult your users, not just the managers. They're the ones who really know how things are done. And here I speak from experience as a systems analyst.

If one of the reasons is to gain new applications, consider a partial purchase or consider adding new applications in PowerHouse. Note I said consider. All options should be considered and costed.

I obviously have biased opinions but I do have some personal experience in these things as well. Regardless of the technology, the user interface and application development are key. You can make the bets technology into an unusable system and get great efficiency from 30 year old software. I'm talking about UNIX :-)

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: powerh-l-bounces+bob.deskin=cognos.com at lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-bounces+bob.deskin=cognos.com at lists.sowder.com]On
Behalf Of fernando.olmos at hpa.com.au
Sent: December 22, 2005 4:49 PM
To: powerh-l at lists.sowder.com
Subject: Opinions sought on phasing Powerhouse over to Oracle


Has anyone here worked on "gently" migrating from Powerhouse over to an
"off the shelf" product using an Oracle database?

Yep. It's our turn now. 	:(

I am just wondering if Oracle products can be "customisable" enough to
meet our client's existing needs and if not, how much functionality do
you loose? Obviously it depends on the application, business, etc, but
as a "rule of thumb", has anyone had to basically bite the bullet and
change entire business processes to accommodate an Oracle system? It
should be the other way around, shouldn't it?

I've never had experience with Oracle directly, other than the database
schema via PL/SQL. If a company goes with Oracle I assume Oracle will
want to impose their "advice" on the business based on past experiences,
and will therefore want their people on the floor? What if the business
wants to do this entire project internally, without Oracle's assistance?
Is that possible, or is there hefty "penalties" in regards to licenses?

I am not the project manager for this project by the way, but I will be
involved in any development work for the project.

Any Do's and Don'ts will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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