December 14, 2011 at 4:38 am
The UK company I work for recently purchased a product which runs on a transactional Sql Server db.
When purchasing we were assured that we could certainly have access to run reports (!) and ETLs directly from the transactional db - which I had assumed was the norm because I've never worked anywhere that this wasn't the case.
Now the software vendors are presenting that they are going to develop a data-mart for us (at our expense of course!) with the view of removing our access to the central db. Only access thereafter being via their data-mart. The contents of which would be documented apart from the actual source of the data from within the db.
What I am pondering is...is that normal? Or even Legal?
H
December 14, 2011 at 5:33 am
Not a lawyer so confirm with one.
It's your data. Period.
Especially since this was part of the sales pitch, it should be allowed (now's the time for proof if you have it).
The easy is to call them back and talk about this (and that it's a deal breaker). It should go your way.
December 14, 2011 at 6:04 am
Adding another thought here. What about the product evaluation? Didn’t you evaluate it on practical grounds? You should also accept some responsibility here.
Sales Guys commit toooooooooo much for sale but they never give you an opportunity to catch them on their commitments (all verbal). If you have any evidence for that matter you can argue on legal grounds.
I will say it’s normal. I would also say it’s legal (subject to no evidences to prove them guilty) but it’s certainly NOT ethical.
December 14, 2011 at 6:07 am
On the same grounds, stopping payments is also legal and very effective to sort those things out. 😉
December 14, 2011 at 6:21 am
Sadly I have no idea what product evaluation took place
- because I was hired to support the BI/MI of things as a result of buying into said software.
HoHum - hopefully not yet time to start job hunting....
But thanks for your input though!
December 20, 2011 at 4:04 am
Depends on the contract.
Its likely they are worried about the intelectual property in for the form stored procedure code and not the data which belongs to you.
There's no reason why they cant protect their interests whilst leaving you with access to the raw data.
December 21, 2011 at 2:51 pm
I've run into this a couple of times. Yes, it's our data, but not our database structure. I've been presented with massive data dumps but no table structures or relationships.
As someone already said, it depends on the contract.
December 21, 2011 at 3:07 pm
I agree, much depends on the contract..
Your data is not open to debate unless the contract says otherwise. It may be their structure but trying to protect structure is doomed to fail and other companies like MS have been able to do a good job without locking people out of the DB..
It all comes down to the contract, I would argue if the contract doesn't explicitly allow for this then you likely have a breach.. And witholding payment is often a great way to get their attention if they aren't listening.. The fact that they want to build this Datamart on YOUR dime is problematic. If they were to then YOUR company would own it and they couldn't sell it to anyone else..
Love to hear how this play out..
CEWII
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