A Bag of Rocks

Every technology carries a burden.

Keep in mind that if you implement a great new technology, it has a bagful of rocks hanging off of it. Some of the rocks are:

+ Initial monetary cost (Obviously. But also:)
+ Integration efforts
+ Support burden
+ Training
+ Learning curve resulting in delayed productivity
+ User stress from the human-computer interaction issues inherent in almost every technology

So the capabilities of the technology and the benefits of adopting it are only part of the picture. A true cost/benefit analysis has to go beyond the off-the-shelf expense.

- AB, 2/24/04