Yes, for example say a company has 9 different databases, you would save more money by eliminating a,b,c,d, of a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i, and now have five g's or 2 g's and 4 i's or whatever along with what's left over than replacing i with j. But sometimes a product can offer something special where consolidation wouldn't be the primary consideration.
From my point of view the execution problems could possibly have been in the designing of the software. Maybe if more care had been taken the last minute problems wouldn't have arisen. That's total speculation on my part though. From what I can tell Joe did fine until the last when the software issues started, and apparently there was some finger pointing between Ants & IBM. And with no revenue, the fund raising which was never expected to have to last as long as it did spiraled out of control. But IMHO Joe did exactly the right thing partnering us up with a big brother(IBM), as we needed to get the customers confidence.
