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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Technology is NOT Functionality

For the past 10 years, South Carolina Blue Cross has been successfully training its own programmers.

"Colleges were teaching students how to build operating systems for PCs, develop client/server systems or game software, but they didn't understand legacy systems or large-scale computer programming," said BlueCross CIO Stephen K. Wiggins. "So, we started our own internal program."

Many times I've heard insurers argue that no matter what a system DID, it simply HAD to be written in a particular language because that language is ALL the colleges teach, and they CAN'T hire people who are willing to work with anything that's more than a couple of years old.

I never understood this. Can you think of another industry that determines it's technology strategy based on the whims of soon-to-be-hired entry level staff?

Me either.

I have a B.S. in Computer Science, and I'll tell you this... if you hire a solid student from a good Computer Science program, the kid can learn absolutely any language you throw at him or her.

If, on the other hand, you decide to save some money and hire a so-so student from a mediocre program, he or she may never learn another thing after the diploma shows up.

Technology is NOT functionality. Focus on what the system does, how much it does, and how well it does it. If it's any good, you won't care what it's written in.