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Comment by jbob2000 | Hacker News Reader

jbob2000

Oh I have a good story about that! Healthcare software is rife with these sorts of things.

We had a potential client come in saying they had the toughest requirements; terabytes of data would be collected, we'll need PhD data scientists to write very complex algorithms, huge servers to handle the incredible load and uptime needed, full suite of mobile and desktop apps, blah blah blah.

We analyze his requirements a bit and it turns out he needs actually just needs a survey with 5 questions, none of which collected personal information. And he treats 20 patients a year. We call him in, set him up a Google Form in front of him, and sent him on his way. Probably saved the Canadian healthcare system millions on that one.

Looking back on this experience, I think some people are incredibly ego-driven, so the prospect of doing something off-the-shelf or for free doesn't enter their conscience.

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Or sometimes it's just a missing piece of critical thinking - 'Is what I'm doing unique to me, or is it something other people need to be doing as well?'. Most times there are others doing the same things, and that means there's a market probably being served by someone already that you can leverage to meet your needs.

Or down the other path where that question is never asked is the madness of 'fully customizable' LOB stuff, like SAP or Domino.

I have that conversation often in the enterprise apps space, and so frequently the fundamental question just hasn't been considered while everyone rushes towards a horrible custom code nightmare that's entirely unnecessary.

> the madness of 'fully customizable' LOB stuff

An observation from working with LOB stuff: Often software is simply the tool companies use so that they can spend dollars to defer fixing issues with training, procedures, or management.

For example, some salespeople have an incentive to over-promise and under-charge in order to make their quotas and bonuses, which causes problems down the line for the company finances and whomever needs to fulfill those requests.

Rather than changing the compensation structure -- or asking the direct managers to do their job with oversight -- the company decides to spend bucks on software, programming the computer to tsk-tsk-tsk and wag an admonishing digital finger. Since there's no followup or moral suasion, a month later nothing has changed except that the sales team has found different "dump stats" for achieving their goals.

'Looking back on this experience, I think some people are incredibly ego-driven, so the prospect of doing something off-the-shelf or for free doesn't enter their conscience.'

I agree completely and have experienced the same very often.

You make a good point about the ego thing. We had several enquiries from customers who would prefer custom development rather than make small changes to their business processes so as to be able to use off the shelf products.

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