2015-November: Operational Excellence by Design eNewsletter

I started my business during the “Golden Age of Technology” back in 1985. This was a time when the power of computing was being brought to the individual level; a time of personal computers (starting with the Apple-II and IBM-PC) when we all thought that needing more than 640k or RAM and a 20meg hard disk was all anyone could ever possibly need, a time when networking computers and devices was becoming available, a time when accounting systems (then Enterprise Resource Planning “ERP”) and other business applications no longer required a mini-computer (like the DEC-VAX or IBM System 3x) or mainframe (like the IBM 370) but could be run on far less expensive networked personal computers.

And it was a time when the creators of business applications really and truly cared about their users and making an indelibly positive mark with their efforts. I remember when my company, XONITEK (which was a consultancy in technology and business applications at the time), would report issues with the code in an application and the programmers at the creator of the software would “pull an all-nighter” with pizzas and beers to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

It was really exciting and gratifying to identify and attack a problem knowing you had a technology partner who cared, was eager to offer the necessary support, and was invested in the success of the client and the implementation partner. We all felt like heroes – and the client was very happy for the response, efforts, and timely conclusion.

Ahhh… The good old days… Alas, not any more… Not for some time…