Re: Anybody home?

[Mr Philo <pjconnol@chaph.usc.edu>]

A comparison was made between what a home-grown system would cost and what
one of the commercial products cost.  CHAMMPS, for example costs over
10 grand (was it 12?) and then something like 3000 per year for 
updates and support.  Well, here at USC, we paid a developer (a student
so we got off really cheap -- and he was good) something like $10,000 over
the course of a year and a half.  Then there was the time the HPs in this
office spent working with the developer, and now there is the time that I
spend on the program to maintain it and to make changes, tie up loose ends, 
etc.  Nobody here has figured out what these costs add up to (I suppose we
could, but it might be a little depressing).  Now, we are very happy with
what we ended up with.  It does EXACTLY what we want and it matches our
enterprise perfectly.  None of the commercial products currently available
would have done that for any price.  I guess what it comes down to is this...
If you must have your computer management "just so", and you have the resources
to dedicate to such an endeaver (HPs will need to spend a lot of time on this, 
whether they program or not) then a home grown system will work (we did it, 
anyone can do it :)  ).  It would probably be **cheaper** to buy a ready made
package, including paying whatever annual subscription or service charge.  It
just won't necessarily be a perfect match to your enterprise.

Phil Connolly
University of Southern California
pjconnol@usc.edu

BTW: Several people in S.F. a few weeks age indicated that they would like
to get a closer look at USC's program, written in FoxPro for Windows. 
I am working on getting a demo ready, and anyone else who wants to see it 
let me know.  This application will not be adoptable directly into another 
institution; however it will be useful in giving ideas, and the code will 
be available, and parts of that will be adaptable.