At 01:34 PM 3/8/2007, Craig A. James wrote:
Rodrigo Madera wrote:
I would just like to note here that this is an example of
inefficient strategy.
We could all agree (up to a certain economical point) that Alex
saved the most expensive one thousand dollars of his life.
I don't know the financial status nor the size of your
organization, but I'm sure that you have selected the path that has
cost you more.
In the future, an investment on memory for a (let's say) rather
small database should be your first attempt.
Alex may have made the correct, rational choice, given the state of
accounting at most corporations. Corporate accounting practices and
the budgetary process give different weights to cash and
labor. Labor is fixed, and can be grossly wasted without
(apparently) affecting the quarterly bottom line. Cash expenditures
come directly off profits.
It's shortsighted and irrational, but nearly 100% of corporations
operate this way. You can waste a week of your time and nobody
complains, but spend a thousand dollars, and the company president
is breathing down your neck.
When we answer a question on this forum, we need to understand that
the person who needs help may be under irrational, but real,
constraints, and offer appropriate advice. Sure, it's good to fight
corporate stupidity, but sometimes you just want to get the system back online.
Craig
All good points.
However, when we allow or help (even tacitly by "looking the other
way") our organizations to waste IT dollars we increase the risk that
we are going to be paid less because there's less money. Or even
that we will be unemployed because there's less money (as in "we
wasted enough money we went out of business").
The correct strategy is to Speak Their Language (tm) to the
accounting and management folks and give them the information needed
to Do The Right Thing (tm) (or at least authorize you doing it ;-)
). They may still not be / act sane, but at that point your hands are clean.
(...and if your organization has a habit of Not Listening to Reason
(tm), strongly consider finding a new job before you are forced to by
their fiscal or managerial irresponsibility.)
Cap Ex may not be the same as Discretionary Expenses, but at the end
of the day dollars are dollars.
Any we spend in one place can't be spent in any other place; and
there's a finite pile of them.
Spending 10x as much in labor and opportunity costs (you can only do
one thing at a time...) as you would on CapEx to address a problem is
simply not smart money management nor good business. Even spending
2x as much in that fashion is probably not.
Cheers,
Ron Peacetree
