1) Loss of momentum, time, and effort - Because of the high level of detail involved in the upgrade, bringing each SSM user fully up to speed on all the considerations and concerns associated with this upgrade is an involved process and requires a tremendous amount of time and energy. Once discussions are underway, you are reasonably up to speed, and all the details are fresh in our collective minds (yours, about the upgrade, and ours about all your issues and concerns), putting off the purchase decision after that point is a huge setback. If a quote including hardware has been prepared, a delay of 30 days or more will most likely mean that the quote will have to be completely redone. Any substantive delay necessitates a full re-examination of all the issues when the project is re-kindled. This represents an enormous wasted effort on everybody's part. And the upgrade process typically and realistically takes from 2 -4 months from inception to go-live. Remember that no time is really a good time to re-automate - it's always at least somewhat disruptive. We can't eliminate the disruption completely, but we do everything possible to minimize it. One way to do that is to plan the project carefully, well in advance, when the existing system is behaving itself (which brings us to Reason #2).