His Company Ran on Outdated Tech — When He Tried to Explain a Cost-Cutting Plan Wouldn’t Work, His Manager Wouldn’t Listen
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Tech companies often have to work within the budget and technical restrictions that they have in place, but not everyone recognizes that.
What would you do if a manager came to you and said that she was going to save the company money by phasing out certain types of older technology, even though you tried to explain that it was essential for a major customer of the company?
That is what happened to the tech guy in this story, and no matter how he tried to explain it to her, she wouldn’t listen and only focused on the money it would save.
At some point, he just needs to let her have her way, but to document exactly what will happen and whose fault it will be. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.
But I saved the company so much money…
Not really tech support…but this happened to me yesterday. I wasn’t really upset by it, more just dumbfounded.
It is shocking how many tech companies use outdated systems.
I am a software developer. Currently I manage the internal website for an IT company that has technicians that install cable/satellite/internet etc. And we contract to big communications companies.
That being said. We have an archaic system. Our technicians use a program that was supplied from one of our clients. It is a 16 bit app that will only run on windows xp or earlier.
As long as the system works for them, that is what matters.
Anything newer than that it just doesn’t work properly. So, becuse of that we buy cheap laptops, and install the app on that. But whats more, we have created in-house (well the previous regime that I replaced did) two separate programs that hook into each other and to this 16 bit program.
From the hooking we grab information from various text boxes and deposit that text into ‘our’ textboxes, save the data into our database, etc etc.
Sometimes it is hard to justify any extra spending.
We have tried getting this system to work on Windows 7, but it simply will not work. Period. The upper-ups of the company are fine with this, we can make due for now.
Future plans are to re-write the program to work on Win7 and later, but the 16 bit app that we use (from the client) isn’t so successful at that, and they do not plan on making a new version.
So now you have the background.
They can’t just phase out the laptops, though.
Our procurement manager informed me that we currently have 600 phones. And that if we bundle our data and phone plans we will save about 12 dollars per phone per month.
This is good. But she also has decided to start phasing out the laptops, and not replacing them when broken (techs are pretty rough with them unfortunately), because now the users can just install the apps on their phone and not need a laptop.
It doesn’t seem like she knows what she is talking about.
She said ‘they use android phones so we can just install the apps on that’.
Me: Ummm these applications were made for Windows, specifically for Windows, and using Windows hooking API’s to join the programs together. This will not work, run, or can even be installed on an Android Phone
Her: Yes it can, just run the installer.
She just isn’t listening.
Me: No it can’t. It is like putting a Porsche engine into a Pinto. Can’t be done.
Her: Yes, it can. My friend installed a Porshe engine into a Volkswagen, so it can be done.
Me: Ok that is irrelevant. You can’t install it.
Why is this so difficult?
Her: Well we will just get Windows phones instead, and you can install it on there.
Me: They were not developed for the Windows Phone…they do not use the Windows Phone API’s, interface, runtimes, etc. You simply can’t do that, just because the name is Windows.
Her: Well just push it all to the web so they can access it on their Android.
She is refusing to give in.
Me (losing patience). Sigh. No no no, even if we had written these applications for the web (which we hadn’t) there is no guarantee that they will work because much was made specific for IE. Some pages just won’t work (especially the ones that use activex controls) in firefox and other browsers…let alone the Android browswer.
Her: Oh cool. Ok I will get Windows Phones and you can use it that way.
They won’t save money if they can’t do the work.
Me: Once again…no. Same issue as the Android browser. Things were constructed (once again previous regime) to work the way it does now.
Her (not even listening): oh man I am going to save this company so much money.
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I’ve got a headache.
He needs to tell her to show him how it will work. Obviously, she won’t be able to do that, at which point they can hopefully have a conversation about real options.
Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this situation.
Here is one way that they could do it.
This commenter says there are easy solutions to this problem.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who got the perfect revenge after being told he can’t work from home.
It is sad that some people think spending money on IT is a waste.
This person reminds him to document everything.
She really isn’t understanding the situation. That being said, there are other solutions available that he should be aware of.
There is always a battle between IT and management, though.
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