[LINK] Westpac innovation gets through the Gates

[richard@auscoms.com.au]

Bernard asks:

>I don't want to denigrate the current Westpac IT staff, but does anyone
>remember the CS90 debacle?

That's funny, Bernard, I was sure it was called CS87. And CS88. And CS89...

RC
____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    [LINK] Westpac innovation gets through the Gates
Author: "Bernard Robertson-Dunn" <brd@dynamite.com.au>
Date:       17/02/00 9:27

<quote>
Westpac innovation gets through the Gates
By Emma Connors
Fin Review
17/2/00
http://www.afr.com.au/content/current/inform/inform2.html

When Microsoft chief Bill Gates met Westpac executives in March 1998, he
went away with just one word scribbled on his notepad. Deployment.

"The point we made was that ... every time Microsoft launched a new product
it was hell on wheels for us because no-one in Microsoft thought about
deployment (in a corporate environment) and the complexity of changing a
base platform," said Mr Stuart Coughlan, Westpac's general manger,
planning, architecture and control.

<snip>

"I believe we have some of the best IT people in the world, so it was great
to talk to Gates [in March 1998] and hear him say that 'Microsoft was in
awe' of what our people had done," Mr Coughlan said.

</quote>

I don't want to denigrate the current Westpac IT staff, but does anyone
remember the CS90 debacle?

If one were to be unkind, one might say that for Microsoft to be in awe of
you doesn't carry a lot of weight. On the other hand, it might not be
unkind, just true.

--
There are three roads to ruin; women, gambling and technicians.
The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling,
but the surest is with technicians.
-- Georges Pompidou. Sunday Telegraph. 26 May 1968

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd@dynamite.com.au