Oregon Suing Oracle Over Obamacare Site, But Still Needs Oracle's Help

jfruh writes Oracle and the state of Oregon are in the midst of a particularly nasty set of lawsuits over the botched rollout of Oregon's health care exchange site, with Oregon claiming that Oracle promised an "out-of-the-box solution" and Oracle saying that Oregon foolishly attempted to act as its own systems integrator. But one aspect of the dispute helps illustrate an unpleasant reality of these kinds of disputes: even as Oregon tries to extract damages from Oracle, it still needs Oracle's help to salvage the site.

Mistake #1

[maz2331]

Using Oracle. Even their flagship DBMS product is a nightmare to configure and try to get decent performance out of - unless one hires a 6-figure DBA to constantly babysit the damn thing.

Re:normal

[Charliemopps]

this is how disputes over large projects between large organizations are almost always handled, nobody takes their ball and goes home just because something is disputed unless one or both organizations have a serious cult of personality issue.

Right... I think everyone doing business with Oracle is Simultaneously working on a project, negotiating their contract renewal and in legal preceding. That's how Oracle works.

Re:ok

[Noah Haders]

it's a shame oracle has never done a state or federal contract before; otherwise, they would know more about how to write a contract and scope of work. I'm sure the next time will go smoother!

Re:Mistake #1

[F34nor]

Same reason that Regence BCBS blew $500 million on their REMAC project trying to replace IBM mainframes with PCs. They listened to ass-hat consultants and ignored the nerds. If your computer consultant arrives in a suit and a Lincoln Town Car DON'T FUCKING LISTEN TO HIM.

Re:grow your own exchange

[rsilvergun]

Or they could just hire programmers directly. The gov't doesn't have to just hand out juicy contracts, it can employe people directly. But as everyone who's been completely ignoring the increased efficiency of the DMV and post office knows it's scientifically impossible for the gov't to do that. That and it's still 1950 and Leave it to Beaver is in it's 3rd season...

Re:Mistake #1

[canadiannomad]

Much as I'm not a fan of Bill gates, mistake #1 is not following the rules of automation:

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

-- Bill Gates

Re:ok

[Noah Haders]

i was shopping for a developer company to make a public website DB thing. I was getting all sort of stupid responses. One firm bragged that they use "waterfall", which means they would sign on to do $X worth of work but would not agree to deliverables because it's fluid and agile. is this what the industry's like? lactarded.