i totally sympathize. i currently am working on a project to consolidate many databases. the hitch is that the main database resides in an as/400 which makes it difficult to integrate existing external applications which were written for mssql, mysql, notes, etc..
i don't think the problem relies entirely on outside consultants who develop these things, but rather a lack of understanding withing the company itself.
if the company doesn't communicate the direction they are going to the consultants, then the consultants probably won't have any idea.
with that said, .. if the company was capable of knowing where their IT systems were going in the future, they probably wouldn't need to contract outside IT work
be happy you're not having to consolidate everything into a db2 database
