>A question an IT consultant should be asked:
>Have you ever assayed an installation and reported that "it works, there is no need to change anything."

Also, in prior situations like these I have seen before, when the concern is "What will we do in x years, assuming...", has usually never been a concern as the technology is changing fast, and as you said, when something is working why chaning it. Just look at the example of all those companies who developed in VB and ASP. They also faced the situation they had to get the knowledge of .NET and most of them are still trying to handle it. What was suppose to last for much longer as last only for a certain time ...while VFP is still there running! :)

>From my government years, I can remember being hidden away with some EE's in an isolated parts cage and listening to them discuss the politics needed to allow a "favored" vendor to write a set of specifications so tight that only his company (the favored vendor's) could address all the issues on the bid.

Lots of politic in here

>Sometimes, to understand how a non-issue becomes an issue, we need look no further that some of the cubes in the IT/MIS ares:)

Maybe there are.