Re: Offload from the AS/400

I think your best bet is to lay out the costs and time table.  Tell them
you can upgrade your 400 for X dollars, using X man hours and X
downtime.

Or you can convert to a PC application for X dollars (software and
hardware costs), X man MONTHS (programming & testing) and x downtime
(remember the downtime on the LAN?)  

Guess which will cost more!


Art Tostaine, Jr. wrote:
> 
> I am in a new "conflict" with a customer of over five years.  We won them 
>over 5
> years ago because their PC network had been down for 2 weeks, and it had been
> down over 50% of the time for the last year.  They new that we were doing good
> things with the AS/400.
> 
> Within two weeks, we rolled a used AS/400 in (their new one was on order), 
>and we
> replaced the main application on their PC network, a simple trucking billing
> system.
> 
> During the next 5 years,  they have run their business with zero downtime due 
>to
> hardware or software, and everything is going swell.
> 
> Recently, their computer transactions doubled due to a new customer.  The 
>revenue
> from this new customer did not double, but the amount of "data entry" did.
> 
> They leased new trucks, hired new drivers, new billing clerks, etc.
> 
> Guess what, the 400 is slow!
> 
> They also just hired an MIS exec (the only MIS staff they've had in 5 years). 
> He
> has no AS/400 experience.
> 
> The problem is that the 400 is slow, and they need a solution.  The MIS exec 
>has
> all but convinced my previously happy client that they need to "offload" some
> applications from the AS/400.  Get some things down to the PC's.
> 
> I said that if they wanted GUI, we could do that easier than writing our own
> front end, using seagull, BOS, etc.
> 
> MIS exec says, "I'm not real hot on GUI, I just want to save the AS/400 some 
>CPU
> cycles"
> 
> Why?  Why take an application that works, but is slow, and rewrite it, 
>re-test,
> etc., on a PC?
> 
> They do not want to spend money to upgrade the AS/400, but will rewrite
> applications on a PC!
> 
> It has only taken 5 years for the customer to forget the nightmare that was 
>their
> PC network.  In fact, the PC software company that is waiting (drooling) to 
>write
> all of these new applications is the one that was responsible for the old
> network!  We replaced them, now their waiting do replace me!
> 
> My firm did not fail.  They got too big for their AS/400.  I'm going to have 
>to
> go up against a new MIS exec that obviously is trusted by my client (they pay 
>him
> big bucks) to convince them that the AS/400 is the way to go.
> 
> That "Spin doctors" thread on this list is related to this.  How can a PC have
> the edge over 5 years of AS/400 success simply because someone says
> "Client/Server"?
> 
> I offered to be part of  Client/Server application development, but they are
> looking to rewrite existing applications, and just use the AS/400 as a server.
> What do they need me for?  The PC company (which writes in powerbuilder) can 
>use
> ODBC to create, delete, etc., tables on my AS/400.  If there are no green 
>screen
> apps, I'm gone.
> 
> Cracking my nuckles preparing for a fight!
> --
> Art Tostaine, Jr.
> Creative Computer Associates, Inc.
> Parlin, NJ
> atostaine_at_crecomp_dot_com
> 
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