Beware of Line Rental Saver

[#1]

I believe that ITWorks has probably hit the nail on the head.

I routinely deal with problems like these where I work, which is a company that uses a large and complicated database.

I expect that the database is poorly designed and either requires restructuring with regards to the data that is stored in the tables and the relationships between them. However, it could be as simple as just rewriting the SQL in the stored procedures used to query and update the database.

In plain English, it just requires someone with the appropriate programming experience to fix the problem so that the front line support staff can easily do their job and keep customers happy.

[#2]

Let us not dismiss the complexity of this ... it is not just a matter of "the appropriate programming experience" it also needs business logic knowledge and analysis.  As someone "routinely dealing with problems like these" I am sure that you'll agree that more often than not, its the "its just a simple SQL change" are the ones which more often than not totally cockerel-up the whole system!

[#3]

I'm sure that you are correct Townman. If the business logic, workflow and database are poorly designed, changes can lead to unwanted side effects. It sounds very much like Plusnet have a database that has grow organically and probably needs a bit of refactoring to make it fit for purpose.

This is why you thoroughly test any change on a clone of the live database, not the live database itself.

Being an optimist, I would like to think that a company the size of Plusnet would have an employee with sufficient expertise who is methodical and diligent enough to make a success of this change.

It just depends on whether management have the will to solve this problem. If they don't grasp the nettle now, then other problems will probably occur in future the next time that they introduce another new product.

[#4]

I believe you are quite correct - systems in many organisation's grow organically from and out side of their original design intentions causing them to become difficult to flex further.  Unlike many providers, PlusNet has retained many users on now quite mature legacy options and I guess that makes modification of the business logic yet more complicated.

There have been promises of new ordering systems / journeys and billing system for .... Years!  It is difficult to know what changes have seen the light of day.