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IT Consulting Question
Legionnaired
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I just responded to a classified ad in the university paper asking for someone to come in and 'clean up' a relational database.
From what I gathered on the phone, they want someone to come in, collate as many as three relational databases into one, and then 'get MS Access and Goldmine to talk to each other.'
My thought was to write a script to pull all of the data from all of the databases, copy them into one master record, back that up, and then set up a MS Access view for it, so they only have to use the one frontend, and can dump goldmine. Does this sound like a good plan, given the meager amount of information to which I am currently privvy?
What is a fair price for such a venture?
From what I gathered on the phone, they want someone to come in, collate as many as three relational databases into one, and then 'get MS Access and Goldmine to talk to each other.'
My thought was to write a script to pull all of the data from all of the databases, copy them into one master record, back that up, and then set up a MS Access view for it, so they only have to use the one frontend, and can dump goldmine. Does this sound like a good plan, given the meager amount of information to which I am currently privvy?
What is a fair price for such a venture?
Legionnaired on
0
Posts
First you need to find out why the potential client is using Goldmine. There might be a good reason that this mixed system exists in the first place.
They are using Goldmine as a database for all of their prospective customers. Everyone and their mother is in that database.
That database is from the 1990s. It doesn't even use SQL.
They also have a newer Access SQL database, that is their customer DB and has links to the sales and inventory system.
Here's the kicker. Both of these databases are run on the same fucking computer - the Goldmine DB is on a virtual PC running windows 98.
They asked me for some 'clean-up' work since apparanty their queries have been returning either duplicate or incorrect data. I explained to them that they instead need to fix the abomination that was thier database. They responded that it was out of the question, since they 'slated an IT re-evaluation for 2010' - and are just looking to 'get by until that time.'
jesus.
I don't think I'll be working for these people.
Yeah, I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole, and neither should you, unless you're super-desperate for money. "MS Access and Goldmine database cleanup" doesn't exactly shine on your resume.
Yellow'd for highlighting.
Welcome to IT. That's the sort of shit that made me leave. It is more common than you think.