Re: BPCS maintenance

Ed Zdrok,
Why don't you use your name rather than the alias name Paul Reed? 

-----Original Message-----
From: bpcs-l-bounces+robertwrite=hotmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bpcs-l-bounces+robertwrite=hotmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Paul Reed
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 8:54 AM
To: 'SSA's BPCS ERP System'
Subject: Re: [BPCS-L] BPCS maintenance

There have been quite a few customers that have raised concerns over very
high 'key fees' and the increase in OGS. 
If you are moving to a new processor, you won't have much of a choice in
paying the key fee. You could however, time your purchase to end of fiscal
quarter, reps are looking to make their sales numbers and may be more
willing to negotiate.

In the last few months we've seen an increase in the number of BPCS
companies switching from OGS to our BPCS Support services. (In addition to
the cost factor, we also support modifications, 3rd party packages,
interfaces, provide education and programming services, etc).
It boils down to financial calculations. If you feel the version you are on
is stable and satisfies your business requirements for the foreseeable
future, it may make sense to drop OGS until such time as new features in
BPCS warrant the expense of an upgrade. If you feel you will want to upgrade
in the next 2 years, it may make sense to keep OGS.

I use this analogy: I use Quicken. Each year they come out with a new
version, and let's say the new version costs $100. I look at what features
are included. If all I get are some new reports or different layouts to the
screen, it's not worth the investment. When Quicken began allowing automatic
downloads of stock quotes and bank/credit card statements, that to me WAS
worth the investment, as it would save me let's say 1 hour a week for 52
weeks = 52 hours. $100/52 = $1.92 per hour. I feel my time is worth more
than $2 an hour so the expense to upgrade was justified.

Folks at our company spent a fair amount of time reviewing LX both at the
BPCS shows and SSA demos for our clients. The most recent review was done by
a client on 4.05CD. While LX is a great product and based upon our
experience much better than SAP (in cost to implement/maintain alone SAP can
be 3x-10x more expensive), when we did our cost/benefit analysis for the
client, it didn't make sense to upgrade, and their management concurred.
Several of our clients on version 8 also looked at LX and decided to wait.
We think there are great things down the road. The Epiphany product
(recently acquired) will add a lot when thoroughly integrated. Some of the
other acquisitions need better integration as well. IMHO, 3 years down the
road there won't be an iseries package that's in the same league as BPCS.

Best regards,
Paul Reed
Advanced Systems and Products (ASAP)
PR@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.BPCSPros.com