[flukus]

> Many companies simply go for what works and throw money at the problem

So they went with the easiest option and now they are locked in due to lack of forward planning. Their own short term planning is to blame.

With the third party software you mentioned, how long have the relied on it and have they don't absolutely anything to mitigate this reliance? My guess is that they've done nothing or worse, written a bunch of integration points on top of the software that makes it even harder to replace.

One day the company providing that software will jack up the price and you'll be forced to pay it. Again I'll have no sympathy because the company has done nothing to unlock themselves.