Stephen, While not completely true, in my experience it is mostly true. In most of the local government IT shops with whom I had dealings, as soon as an employee becomes competent he leaves for the private sector, and the ones left are those who cannot get a job anywhere else. I am still surprised how often I have to tell them how to do basic procedures that they should know and yet they don't
Javier, Javier Valencia, PE O: 913-829-0888 H: 913-397-9605 C: 913-915-3137 -----Original Message----- From: rbase-l@rbase.com [mailto:rbase-l@rbase.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Markson Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 3:38 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Using R:Base as front End Hi list, Let's remember that incompetence is not the exclusive province of government personnel and that not all government personnel should be tarred with the "incompetence" brush. Regards, Stephen Markson The Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada 416.979.2431 x251 -----Original Message----- From: rbase-l@rbase.com [mailto:rbase-l@rbase.com] On Behalf Of Jim Belisle Sent: March-26-14 2:20 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Using R:Base as front End Javier, There is a saying I learned many years ago. "If it don't make sense, there's a buck in it." Unfortunately that is so true in government. James Belisle Making Information Systems People Friendly Since 1990 -----Original Message----- From: rbase-l@rbase.com [mailto:rbase-l@rbase.com] On Behalf Of Javier Valencia Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 1:16 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Using R:Base as front End Robert, Your comments are right on point. Unfortunately in most government projects, technical decisions are seldom based on technical merits; politics and personal agendas seem to take precedence, which I unfortunate since it is tax payer money that is being wasted. While the program in question is an engineering application, the entire RFP was written with zero input from engineering or end users. One of the component, whose specifications should be several pages long is summarized in two short paragraphs. I could bid a system that does one tenth of what the current system does, and as long as I am an ESRI partner and have native ODBC capability, it would meet the requirements of the RFP. The level of incompetence is unbelievable...the really scary part is they think they really know what they are doing. I just got off the phone with one of the top engineers at the agency, and the one that had worked on the development of the current system, and he was not even aware an RFP had been issued and he is now looking into the situation and he will move the concerns all the way to the very top, so there is some hope that the process will be stopped. Sometimes, the incompetence of government personnel boggles the mind. Javier, Javier Valencia, PE O: 913-829-0888 H: 913-397-9605 C: 913-915-3137 -----Original Message----- From: rbase-l@rbase.com [mailto:rbase-l@rbase.com] On Behalf Of Rbase List Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 11:01 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Using R:Base as front End Beg your pardon in advance for interject my thoughts here. I am a veteran user of R:Base since it's inception. I have worked as a consultant and/or outside developer for many large corporations including the Government. Today I do not do any type of development (sadly, I miss it!) but I oversee many projects for the Federal Gov. and Private I had seen LARGE projects developed with ORACLE, MS-SQL and the like, and they all got something in common and I wish to share it with you: 1) They are very expensive 2) They require sophisticated planning because once code is implemented it is a nightmare to "Rewind and Re-write" 3) Usually if no in-house development is available then, very expensive outside developers will take the task with a hefty price-tag 4) Some of these tools I must say are NOT intuitive for those that work in the support team. There are many more issues that I could cite first hand, but let's go on. Enter R:Base, simple, elegant and VERY powerful (By the way...did anyone ever needed support from the OTHER guys...?). Here I do have a simple question for all of us, (I have compared Rbase in many applications with other products INCLUDING Oracle, and to be sincere (and trust me Im NOT biased) Rbase outperformed the competition and it was FAR cheaper to deploy and maintain.) does anyone there have any opportunity to do some similar head to head comparison?. No, Im not saying that the other software is/are inferior or not good, what Im saying is that cost/efficiency and maintenance/performance Rbase is one, if not the most obvious choice. Because I'm not in the developing side (for now) I do not have any dog in this fight, but, back when I was instrumental in making the specs or to choose a developing tool there was NEVER a hesitation, ask MasterCard, The Copeland Co, Miami-Dade voters registration, US Cost Guard, 3M and the like, some of these applications still running after 10-12 years FLAWLESS and some have as many as 12,000,000 records. Enough said, perhaps you/we should show the ease of maintenance, the super speed and most of all proudly show the EXCELLENT and PROMPT technical support that our R:Base give, and I assure you that if you/we are good salespersons we will have no problem to introduce R:Base to the "reluctant base of potential clients". My advice is...keep on developing, try to teach the bulk of future programmers (do not fear competition) the power and easiness of a really mature and good tool like R:Base, the more we bring onboard the easier will be for us to "Convince and Show the Power" the broader the developer's base the easier is for all of us. Once again I wish to excuse my intrusion on this thread but it was a gut impulse that it is growing since R:base 4000 was my choice of tools for my pet project back when I was young and I knew that the world was going to be mine :). Robert On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 16:59:37 -0400, A. Razzak Memon <raz...@rbase.com> wrote: > At 04:26 PM 3/25/2014, Javier Valencia wrote: > >> I know of no other application out there has our capabilities, so it >> is very likely that the RFP will require an MS SQL database as a way >> to keep us out. They are absolutely adamant that they do not want to >> use Oterro for ODBC connectivity. >> >> The bulk of the application is the front end, forms (200+) and >> reports (200+), views (100+) and programs, as the database structure >> itself (140 tables, 2700+ columns) is relatively easy to duplicate. > > Javier, > > Do you know how many R:BASE customers have tried other options, wasted > hundreds and thousands of dollars, and are still using R:BASE? > > Do you wonder why? > > If (a big IF) you have lived up to your customers high expectations, > have kept them up-to-date, and have provided them with every single > feature they have requested, you simply don't have to worry about this. > Let them dig their own hole and explore other options, and learn their > lesson, eventually appreciating what R:BASE eXtreme 9.5 (64) has to > offer today. > > Why R:BASE? > www.rbase.com/whyrbase.php > > Having said that, yes, you CAN use R:BASE eXtreme 9.5 (64) as > front-end to MS SQL Server and Oracle. > > R:BASE for Everyone: > http://www.rbase.com/rbg95/rbaseforeveryone.jpg > http://www.rbase.com/rbaseforeveryone_application.jpg > > 2014 SAT Sample Applications include a sample to illustrate the use of > such option using R:BASE eXtreme 9.5 (64). > > Good Luck and Very Best R:egards, > > Razzak. > > www.rbase.com > www.facebook.com/rbase -- From the Desk of Robert Rugilo, EME at Law Offices of David M. 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