It appears that Quantum spent a substantial amount of money on this project and was willing to increase spending when it seemed necessary for the success of the project.

Discuss the risks of a “whatever it takes” approach. 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.