Keeping it simple

There's a lot to be said for the KISS principle.

Very often I find that all a company wants is a simple report generated out of an easy to use query tool. Yet, all too often, somewhere along the way a salesrep for a competitive product has persuaded them that the simple to use end-user tool they have been using all these years is now old hat and needs to be replaced. Sound familiar?

Not so very long ago I was at a conference when I overheard a friend of mine speaking with the senior sales representative for one of Oracle's competitors. Unaware that I was within spitting distance the sales rep was heard to say "and I bet that English so and so is here somewhere!"

Because the simplest of situations amuse me immensely, "Good morning" is all I had to say and off he stalked. What had transpired is that one of my Discoverer customers had been approached by a competitor who had somehow picked up a vibe that Oracle would no longer be supporting their beloved query tool. After dispelling this idea my client decided to stay with Oracle and asked the other vendor to leave.

The truth of the matter is that my client really does have a very simple set of requirements revolving around variances of "tell me how many widgets I sold last month". They don't need a sledgehammer to crack that walnut and keeping it simple is something their report writers are very good at.