A recent article in PC World caught my attention. While a vendor decommissioning an “older” applications is hardly news, rare is the organization that will try to fight this in court.

Typically, clients attempt to negotiate with vendors some type of “sunset” support beyond that which the vendor has agreed to provide to the rest of its clients. In other instances, clients may opt for “independent” support through a third party. Finally, clients may opt to continue using the application unsupported–a risky move to be sure, especially if the application experiences some issues.

One of the applications decommissioned by Lawson (Time Accrual) has been generally available for well over fifteen years. What’s more, Lawson announced the eventual retirement of Time Accrual years ago and even postponed it by eighteen months. At some point, vendors cannot support every application. On the other hand, what are clients’ rights with respect to using stable, reliable applications? The cost and uncertain of upgrading an application may not be feasible for an organization to sustain, especially in dire economic times.

So, what do you think of this article and the issues discussed?