Evaluate the claim that, because of business and organizational issues, this direct cutover was less risky than a phased conversion.

A direct cutover from an existing system to a new one is risky. If the system is critical to the operations of the organization, the risks are magnified to an even higher level.
Yet Quantum Corp. (quantum.com), a Milpitas, California, disk-drive manufacturer, did just that—and lived to tell about it. The vendors and consultants on the project claim that this was one of the largest-ever direct cutovers of a distributed business system.
Quantum realized that it had to take action. The limitations of its existing systems were making it difficult for the company to compete in the disk-drive market. Sales representatives needed to determine how much of a specific item—in inventory or in production—had not yet been committed to other customers. However, because databases did not share information, it was very difficult for them to get this information.