>Cindy,
>Although your suggestion makes perfect sense for a typical business situation, just for extra information, let me add this may not always be true. I work for the federal government. Congress gives us funds each year, based on a lot of political, non-business factors. We have to live with that and therefore our budget is fixed. If I go to my managers and present how much they can save by an upgrade, it will be irrelevant. That's because anything my management buys will cost extra,and no money will be 'saved'. The funds for new products have to come out of the fixed budget, no matter how good an argument I can make for increased productivity. What my management wants to know is why should they spend money on what I want, rather than what someone else wants. My management was very generous in supplying me with several copies of FPW, then VFP5, then one copy of VFP6. It will be very difficult for me to justify an upgrade to VFP7 at this point.

Silly managers! Those same people are charged with meeting certain goals and keeping within their budget. If they make spending choices that result in the greatest possible productivity for the dollars, then they will do well. However, what they appear to be thinking is that the whole group is a bunch of little kids fighting over the sandbox toys and who can have the biggest share of the pie.

Typical for government. That's why capitalism is a better system than socialism.