North Dakota needed to hire Latvians to manage an ancient state computer system

Re:North Dakota needed to hire Latvians to manage an ancient... by eggsthedev on Sunday December 27, 2020 @11:25PM (#25556659)

I think the article couldn't tell us because it seems as though it's reporting on a statement from the Governor, who probably doesn't know the language himself. (nor is it important for him to know, whoever he has on staff clearly explained the issue for him to get a grasp on it)

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Re:North Dakota needed to hire Latvians to manage an ancient... by barryp on Monday December 28, 2020 @12:22AM (#25556921)

Burgum's not a typical pol when it comes to IT stuff, he was the CEO of Great Plains Software which Microsoft bought for $1.1 Billion, was then Senior Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions Group. Apparently he was also chairman of the board for Atlassian in 2012.

Being Governor is his first political office. I'm not saying he knows Cobol, but I'd bet he knows probably as much about it as most of us here do.

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Re:North Dakota needed to hire Latvians to manage an ancient... by DylanDmitri on Monday December 28, 2020 @12:09AM (#25556867)

He probably does; he's got more tech credentials than every other major US politician. He founded a CRM company in the 90s, sold to Microsoft for $1billion, then worked as an executive there for multiple years (and was Satya Nadella's direct manager/mentor).

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Re:North Dakota needed to hire Latvians to manage an ancient... by deathanatos on Monday December 28, 2020 @12:07AM (#25556851)

…and this is the problem I have with journalism today. They merely report the statements that people make about some topic. But if the people making the statement don't answer some question you the reader might have? Tough cookies.

Sure, the Governor might not know, but, you know, perhaps he can help put the journalists in contact with the relevant department head who might know, or who might know who knows.

Instead, we spent the first three paragraphs repeating various wordings of "Old system. Not paying enough for the expertise we need to bite in America. Hired some Latvians."

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Re:North Dakota needed to hire Latvians to manage an ancient... by kyawzazaw on Monday December 28, 2020 @12:13AM (#25556887)

The Governor has a background in tech.

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