Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!gatech!uflorida!haven!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!esosun!cogen!celerity!dave
From: dave@celerity.UUCP (David L. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Downsizing
Message-ID: <221@celerity.UUCP>
Date: 1 Dec 88 05:40:53 GMT
References: <8811300409.AA13002@multimax.encore.com>
Reply-To: dave@celerity.UUCP (David L. Smith)
Organization: FPS Computing, San Diego CA
Lines: 35

In article <8811300409.AA13002@multimax.encore.com> bzs@ENCORE.COM (Barry Shein) writes:
>Downsizing means replacing your impressive-looking, power-sucking
>mainframe clunker with a bunch of PC's because the latter actually get
>the work done faster/better/cheaper. The problem they allude to (and
>has been approved by FUD, Inc) is now that you are in charge of a
>bunch of dumb ole PC's who wants to pay you six digits anymore to help
>folks change floppies and fight christmas tree virii? So they replace
>you with the boss's pimply 17-year old kid and productivity really
>goes up (for everyone but you.)

The problem with this "solution" is that without any expert guidance, users
can do the damndest things.  This usually involves them:

a) doing all their word processing with Lotus 1-2-3 because it "says it's a
   word processor"

b) writing numerical analysis programs in dBase II

c) keeping all their files in the root directory of their hard disk because
   they don't understand sub-directories.

d) massive cabling kludges to enable them to share printers.

e) any number of other silly things.

All too often it is assumed that because PC's are cheap they don't need
someone who knows what they're doing (and is therefore expensive) to
supervise their users.  The amount of time and effort that can be saved
by having an expert around to guide users to appropriate solutions to their
problems is enormous.

=============
David L. Smith
FPS Computing, San Diego
ucsd!celerity!dave