"I can still hear the MS rep on the phone a couple years ago when she told me, 'We do not take unsolicited suggestions from the public.' And, yes, she specifically told me it was OK to quote her. Does anyone consider customer needs over corporate profits anymore?"

Gregg Keiser's article in ComputerWorld contains the following downright scary quote from Microsoft's Vista program manager, Nick White in the MS Vista blog, "So far, we've been able to determine that this problem only affects a small number of customers in unique circumstances...” (From The Network!: “We sure hope that your company isn't one of those unique companies.”)

White goes on to say: “Microsoft has not yet produced a fix for users whose machines either won't boot or reboot constantly.” (From The Network! “Because, if you are a Vista user with “issues”, you've probably been living with systems that simply refuse to boot for over three months. Of course, that won't impact your company bottom line, will it?”)

If you are an information technology asset manager (ITAM or TAM), this unfortunately common “type” of new operating system defect report should serve as a serious heads-up. There is another perspective of the article above HERE by Trisha Leibert at TechRepublic. You should read it. When it comes to technology asset management or enterprise asset management (EAM), your abilities to clarify to executive management why your company isn't playing with the latest and greatest tech toys could easily spell doom or boom for both you and your company. Read on for more...

If these issues haven't hit you yet—but especially if they have—you need to begin collecting credible reports of the goods, the bads, and the uglies relating to the Vista operating system. Use these reports as elements of your cost/benefit analysis and conceptual time schedule for a possible Vista upgrade. You do conduct CBAs or business case analyses, don't you? If you can't establish that there is a seriously compelling business case for acquiring this product (or any other IT product) then do not make the purchase.

“By the way, Microsoft pulling XP, or any other operating system, off the market is not a valid criteria for moving to Vista. It may, however, be a perfectly credible prompt for you to start looking for alternative operating systems.”

One of the key reasons that the average company looses significant revenue within the IT budget is that very few companies tend to complete a thorough, unbiased, business case analysis (BCA) prior to initiating a tech purchase. While large corporations can frequently absorb the bumps and grinds of scrap-tech, small companies can easily be slapped right out of business when their “tech advantage” turns out to be a budgetary black hole.

Picture a company with seven computer systems that was “forced” to buy only Vista systems because our friends at MS would only provide that operating system to the local suppliers. Is anyone keeping honest track of the losses to SMEs (small to medium sized businesses) that are being caused by constantly tweaking operating systems and software containing defective code?

Maybe we all should... Because, until we do—and until the global business technology consumer acts upon this knowledge, we will continue to be force-fed technologies that just plain should not have been placed on the market.

I'm Alan Plastow and The Business Technology Consumer Network—The Network!—is your vendor-neutral ally in filtering out vendor hype and bringing solid value back into the your technology asset management (TAM) investments.