Been working with Client X for a couple of months, helping to design and develop a web-based EIS system (well, truly, Kevin is doing the vast majority of development). After several weeks of analysis, working closely with a key stakeholder in the current data warehouse (and a reporting solution that closely approximates the watch, below), we agreed to work with Vendor Y to incorporate their reporting tools into our solution.

It made a ton of sense. Client X already owns licenses to Vendor Y's product. They're just not using it through a browser, nor are they very tightly tied into Client X's data warehouse of choice.

Now: in the month or so since that decision has been made, Kevin has made fantastic progress in dealing with the various roadblocks that have been thrown in front of us in our pursuit of the relevent data. Because of particular restrictions that have been placed around the data in said warehouse, he had to write a DLL in order to establish communications between our web server and the data. And within a matter of weeks, he'd developed four reports, with filters and drill-downs, all driven by data in the warehouse. Plus the various administrative pieces to manage the site (through a browser, of course). Plus document upload capabilities.

This week, a developer from Vendor Y flew into town to "help" us "kickstart" the project (even though it's all but done, with the exception of incorporating their tool into our code).

The point of this lengthy tirade: the one requirement of the vendor (and one that we were repeatedly assured would work) was the ability to connect to the data in this special, funky way required by the client. Guess what. After two days working to get their product up and running, with all the appropriate authorizations and whatnot, it turns out that this version of their product doesn't support that method of data access, though the next version does. Only a couple of months away. Really. We promise.

I'm looking forward to meeting with our client this afternoon. I'd be surprised if we continued working to integrate with Vendor Y's product anymore. It's one thing to make a promise when you're trying to close the deal. Maybe you hope that people won't remember, or maybe you're not sure about what your product can or can't do, or maybe you're hoping to be able to convince the client that their "unique" way of getting to data can be changed. Bottom line remains the same: we were sold on functionality that doesn't exist, and we're not about to wait until the next version.

Never make a business decision based on a particular version of a software tool. Hell, you should never let a tool drive your decision anyway, but especially not "version next."