Morrigan Department Stores (The Ethics of Forced Software Upgrading) Morrigan Department Stores is a chain of department stores in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States that sells clothing, shoes, and similar consumer items in a retail setting. The top managers and their staff members meet once a year at the international meeting. This years meeting was in Hawaiia geographical midpoint for themand several accounting managers participated in a round-table discussion that went as follows: Roberta Gardner (United States): One of our biggest problems in our Auckland office is the high cost and seemingly constant need to upgrade our hardware and software. Every time our government changes the tax laws, of course, we must acquire software that reflects those changes. But why do we need new hardware too? All this discussion of 64-bit machines is a mystery to me, but the IT department says the hardware in the old machines quickly become outdated. Donalda Shadbolt (New Zealand): Ill say! If you ask me, all these upgrades are costly, time-consuming, and even counter-productive. I do a lot of work on spreadsheets, for example, and constantly ask myself: Why do I have to spend hours relearning how to format a simple column of numbers in the newest version of Excel? It takes time and effort, its frustrating, and in the end, Ive spent hours relearning skills that I already know how to do in the older version. Linda Vivianne (Canada): I know what you mean, but the newer hardware is faster, cheaper, and more capable than the old machines. Hard drives have moving parts in them, for example, and they eventually wear out. The newer software runs under the newer operating systems, which are also more competent and have more built-in security such as antivirus software. Ed Ghymn (Australia): I agree with you, Linda, but I think a lot of these new capabilities are more hype than real. If the security software was competent, we wouldnt need all those patches and upgrades in the first place. And why must we upgrade so often, just to get newer capabilities that most of us dont even need? Alex McLeod (Australia): I dont think anyone can stop the march of progress. I think the real problem is not the upgrades to new software, but the fact that our company expects us to learn it without proper training. Personally, I dont buy my bosss argument that youre a professional and should learn it on your own. Linda Vivianne (Canada): Im also beginning to realize just what advantages there are in outsourcing some of our accounting applications to cloud service providers. That wont solve all our problems because we all still need word processing and spreadsheet capabilities, but at least we can let cloud providers deal with the software upgrades for our accounting software. Given how dispersed we are, that might also make it easier for us to consolidate our financial statements at years end too.

Do you agree with Ed Ghymns argument that many upgrades are more hype than real? Why or why not?