.. when half the business processes that keep a company running, are based around bypassing the GUIs of the internal applications and using SQL queries to pull reports on what is really going on.

I think we might work in the same organisation...

I too have worked in one such organization. Either software companies don't listen to the customers, or the customers can't articulate their wishes to the developers, and have in house one make perty reports...where they figure out what then want when they see it.

rl