Akubra takes a step into the 21st century

[navarre_au]

I saw this news today on an IT Portal - It momentarily caused me some confusion


For 130 years, Akubra has been making iconic Australian fur felt hats. But up until the last 18 months, the company was stuck in the '80s, operating on a DOS-based system.

The DOS system was made up of three modules designed to mimic a manual paper system that the company was utilising prior to its introduction. This meant that documentation about how many hats were being produced and at what sizes were entered into a database, rather than being handwritten.

The full article is at http://www.zdnet.com/article/get-with-the-times-akubra-takes-its-data-system-into-the-21st-century/

Regards from Downunder

 

[Lotsahats]

Wow. It's a bit mind-boggling to think it took them this long to change. Thanks for sharing!

A

 

[Edward]

Phew, I was worried they were going to switch to producinv some monstrous, contemporary hats when I read that thread title!! :lol:

 

[RJR]

Interesting.

 

[jskeen]

They are not the only ones, my division of the Soulless multinational I work for just scrapped a Cobol based mainframe app for tracking service activities, and that was on FDA reportable medical devices! You should have heard some of the old timer's howls when they had to learn to navigate Siebel. Being a member of the 20+ year club but relatively computer literate, I was voluntold I would be helping train the field on the new system, and you would have thought I was making them sacrifice their firstborn at times.

 

[Bushman]

Phew, I was worried they were going to switch to producinv some monstrous, contemporary hats when I read that thread title!! :lol:

I was thinking the same! :lol: This is actually pretty interesting, though.

 

[Joao Encarnado]

If the system works without a flaw why spend money changing it?
Only if you are obligated to change with a government rule to make every one spend money on new equipment just to compel the law.
In Portugal every service must generate a invoice. Even if you want an expresso (coffee) on a coffee shop, you'll be given an invoice! So everyone had to buy a computer.