I noticed about a week ago that I have posted very few blog updates with “asset management” as a topic.  Interestingly, I just installed and launched a “legacy application” on my new Windows 7 laptop to find that, after 24 years of service, will need to be retired.  Having wondered what I could write about related to asset management, I now have an article!

Back in 1998, I was hired as a sales associate for a consulting firm.  When I was hired into the firm, I brought with me a contact management database that I had developed using an old 1980’s program, Lotus Agenda.  I had been using it to manage goals, projects, and contacts since 1986.  Even though it was no longer sold or supported, it was an invaluable tool to me.  My boss started off wanting me to move all my contacts out of it into his own Exchange Database, and though I was happy to do that, for the sake of honoring intellectual property and such, I still used Agenda to manage my own networking because I had a system down that worked very well.

By mid-1999 my boss and other technicians in the firm were giving me a hard time about how Agenda was not going to survive Y2K.  Because the dates were displayed in two-digit format, everybody was convinced that come January 1st, 2000, the sales guru would no longer know who to call.  I responded in jest, explaining that I’d just keep resetting the date on my laptop to 12/31/99 (and I used the two digit year format on purpose)!

Well the century turned, and nothing happened.  I continued to use Agenda as a means of managing “the sales process” until recently, when I acquired my newest laptop, which came with Windows 7.

While I am starting to like Windows 7, it’s 64-bit architecture finally put the nail in the Lotus Agenda coffin.  Fortunately I have long since moved my contacts to our exchange database, mainly so that everybody on the Infotex team can share them.  But I was still using Agenda as a long-term goal-planning tool.

I am a bit saddened by the fact that the wonderful database tool, originally acquired in 1986, is now being retired.

So here’s a toast to Lotus Agenda.  You served us well!