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In the past, shelfware loomed large at Mary Kay when immediate needs eclipsed long-term goals, says Steve Moore, technology leader at the Dallas cosmetics company.
Moore says his organization began working with HP OpenView network management software, but found it didn't fit the company's plans going forward.
"Some products were implemented… as temporary solutions that typically did not add much long-term value or were not satisfying the original requirements," Moore says. "Software, training and implementation costs were expended and wasted in this case and turned out to be a bad decision."
These days, Mary Kay technology leaders focus on buying products that align with long-term strategy rather than plugging holes with point products. "Some IT shops do feel that having temporary products in place is just a part of growth, and build that into costs, but we try to make longer term decisions. It save on resource time, training and ongoing maintenance," he says.
Still, Moore doesn't consider the experience with HP OpenView a complete loss. He managed to save the company some money when he discovered Mary Kay had already purchased the product licenses and simply needed to pay maintenance fees for its updated use.
"I happened to be digging through some old papers and found an old agreement that in the end saved us from having to buy licenses," he says. "With all the acquisitions these days, it is wise to check to see if you are already a client with licenses, as many companies are now branches of others and/or use the same code."
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Comments (4)
Net execs struggle to rid their shops of shelfwareBy NetworkWorld Community on January 17, 2007, 3:03 pmWhat do you do with your shelfware? Discuss.
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What is the point of this article.By Anonymous on January 19, 2007, 11:53 amI know it is fashionable to ding Cisco whenever possible, but what is the point of this article. To point out that two years ago Cisco's Security Management tools...
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The writer is talking aboutBy Anonymous on January 19, 2007, 1:30 pmThe writer is talking about Cisco VMS. A product I used for years. I especially liked two components in VMS; Security Monitor and Performance Monitor. Security...
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Spend money in training...By Anonymous on January 24, 2007, 11:46 amI know that CiscoWorks has had some bugs, but we live and breath by this product. It has been a great success within our medical enterprise especially when controlling...
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