A Brief Story
A few years ago, a fiber glass shower unit in our en suite bathroom developed a crack. It seemed simple enough at the time, we called our trusted contractor of choice and asked for it to be replaced.
Of course, that is when the proverbial crap hit the fan.
The shower insert? it had been custom built, and was not a standard size ‘off the shelf’ unit that could be directly replaced. We also found out that custom ordering a replacement unit would be more expensive than just building a custom ceramic tile shower.
But of course! the added width of the new tile side wall of the shower meant that about six inches of bathroom counter top had to be removed, which did not work due to the counter placement of the two sinks. So, next we add new a counter and new sinks.
Next, what about the existing ceramic tile on the floor of the bathroom, can we match the new tile shower with it? No – that tile was discontinued a decade ago, plus there was 12 inches or so of the floor tile that needed to be cut out to build the new tile shower….. So lets add new floor tile as well.
A cracked shower unit meant a complete bathroom renovation.
And in Small Business Technology?
It happens there too. This device won’t work with that software. Or that software can be used if this thing is added.
You try and plan as carefully as you can, but it still comes around once in a while and bites you in the backside. This is a reason that large organizations have definite standards in their network architecture and dedicated interoperability requirements.
For us in smaller businesses – it is a good reason to have a dedicated relationship with your vendors. You really want to know these issues up front. Because you don’t want to get caught half way through what you thought was a walk in the park.