Kevin
How about this, then:
1) Agree enthusiastically with your boss. Oracle will be great.
2) Get all the costs for Oracle and confirm it will "only" cost xxxxxxxxxxxx pounds. Oh, plus another xxxxxx for development tools. and external Oracle contractors only charge xxxxx.
3) Show him how you VFP'ers will be able to access the magnificent Oracle system using VFP Views and SPT- a simple demo will do.
4) Confirm that Yes, he can have all the advantages he is so right exist in Oracle, combined with his existing VFP resource already paid for and present in-house.
5) If he expresses concern about cost, offer to develop using Views so that when the day comes and there is budget you can move cleanly to Oracle. In the interim you can scope/develop using local tables at far reduced cost and much greater efficiency. And if an even better Oracle comes along, he has done the organisation proud by not spending too early and introducing extra cost.
Regards
JR
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
