Painting the Golden Gate

How often do you think they paint the Golden Gate Bridge?

The answer is: They're always painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Because something on the bridge always needs painting.

Somewhere along the way, the agency that manages the bridge decided to make the repainting an ongoing continuous process.

It's probably not the only way to do it. I'm sure there are some other large bridges with a different plan.

But I see advantages here, which I think also apply to your open-source CRM:

• Thinking of maintenance as a continual process means you always have staff who are responsible for ensuring it happens.

• A continual process isn't likely to be overlooked, put off, or forced to compete with other budget priorities.

Here’s the thing:

One of the realities of owning an open-source system is that it must be maintained. Putting off maintenance is a recipe for disaster.

Smart organizations make a point of budgetting the time and/or finances for regular and routine maintenance.

Do it yourself, or hire outside help, but make system maintenance a regular concern.

You don’t want your systems collapsing into the abyss.

All the best,
A.