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Hi Everyone,
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At this summer's FileMaker Developer Conference, I've volunteered to run
a workshop with the dubious title of "FileMaker Politics: Protecting
your in-house solutions from outside competition". Given the nature of
open systems, in which one is often "building the plane while flying
it", it's no surprise that many institutions turn to the familiarity and
stability of large, expensive systems, often at the cost of flexibility,
price, and support (at least, that's how in-house FileMaker people see
it...). In-house developers are often too busy building and flying to
think about competition, and can easily fall into the trap of thinking
their solution is too critical and perfect to ever be replaced...
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While prepping for this workshop and mulling over some of the issues
around this topic, I started to think about how it is that independent
schools, and other types of small businesses, arrive at and evaluate the
decisions they make related to technology, particularly with regards to
the "big systems" (SIS, CMS, etc.). With our increasingly large budgets
and our growing dependence on information systems, the decisions we make
have serious implications for our schools' budgets, the nature and
quality of our communications, and the productivity of our people. To
help me think about this in a way that's only slightly more scientific
than wild speculation, I've put together a brief survey for
administrators. I'd be absolutely thrilled if any of you could find a
few minutes (5-10) to fill it out. I'm particularly interested in
hearing from schools that have recently adopted or chosen to replace a
major system (but others are most welcome). Anyone who is even
peripherally involved in IT decision-making is welcome to participate.=20
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Here is the survey link:
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http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3DoC8s9A0vAR4inkThx63nWQ_3d_3d
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The results summary will be here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=3DeoRzvDNe_2b0UoAf2YZDS5pSdhtGju5W=
1
934B_2bXLRrolk_3d
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Thanks in advance for participating.
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Cheers,
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-Peter Vinogradov
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Chair, Department of Languages
Poughkeepsie Day School, Poughkeepsie NY
pvinogradov@poughkeepsieday.org <mailto:pvinogradov@poughkeepsieday.org>
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