Re: IBM Spin Doctors - couldn't resist responding :-)

>Before I say anything I have to say I loved your commercial ideas - the
>first
>one appeals to my slightly caustic sense of humer!

Thanks! I also thought about using a group of senior citizens standing
looking "over the shoulder" of the camera. Them all with smiling, excited
faces and wide, staring eyes. Every few seconds one of them drops to the
ground. This goes on until the crowd thins down to one or two. The camera
angle shifts to look over the shoulder of the remaining seniors and see
them watching some joggers receding in the distance. Big banner at front
left reads: "7th Annual Nudist 5k Run". Pacemaker voice over.

>analogy to IBM?  Maybe, maybe not.  Does this decrease the over
>all sales of the company?  Maybe, Maybe not.

Well, I don't think a computer is an end result in itself. Without
applications it is just an expensive paperweight (or shelf). I think that
makes a difference in the marketing. 

>You are correct.  I guess the point I was trying to make is that what we
>are
>saying here is who gets the ads out for the applications wins?  Granted no
>one
>has the time to there job 'properly' but wasn't it you who said not very
>many
>decisions are made based on the 'just heard recently' process?

Yes, I sure am! I think this is a big, big matter of perspective. What I
get from yourself or Dean is the perspective that this manager is
foolishly making a decision that is far from the MIS optimum. As a result,
he is "MIS stupid" and making a decision on "what he heard recently." 

What I am saying is that this same manager is making a decision based on
his years of experience IN HIS AREA. He doesn't know if that is good or
bad for MIS, and he isn't paid for that. He just knows he can bring in
more money into the company if he has a product that does what this one
says it will. So he wants that product. Rather than cuss and moan about
his demands, MIS should realize that it is their job to support him. They
exist to keep him out there driving revenue. 

The best thing that MIS can do is to try to get an understanding from his
request as to what it is he wants to achieve. Then, do their best to help
him achieve that. If you don't have have the man hours to implement it,
then tell him to buy his NT server and install it. Maybe his department
can fund an outside consultant to implement it on the AS/400. Whatever,
just help him reach his goal.

>Agreed to a point.  New apps need to come on board but I haven't seen
>a major shift away from bread and butter applications despite all the
>e-commerce hype.  Major business functions aren't a whole lot different
>than they were 5 years ago (accounting, purchasing, MRP, data collection,
>warehouse management, call management, sales reporting, freight
>management, forecasting, scheduling, etc.).  Have these existing
>applications stop being needed?  We have plenty of new
>technologies or application enablers but to me it doesn't make sense to
>dismiss most of those 25,000 + applications as not having a market and
>fulfilling a need.

Well, I think that your statements here sort of express what I mean. Let's
suppose you break the apps down into 25 major categories, so about 1000
per category. That would tend to mean that in each category you probably
have a handful of leaders, say 10, and the rest niche sellers. Leaving you
with about 250 applications that really mean something in the market
place. Before you balk and get upset, you should probably look at it in
the light of: If you have 10 choices for whatever major business need you
have, then there is probably a good answer for what you want. 

But the big numbers of applications are really smoke and mirrors. A
handful of NT apps vs. a handful of AS/400 apps. I have no doubt that
there is no feature of any substance missing from the AS/400 apps. AS/400
customers just wouldn't tolerate it. 
So, the bottom line is that for each NT app that your field managers see
an ad, they must see an ad for an AS/400 app. Then, branding the AS/400
will be more important. It will give the manager a reason to prefer one
over the other. 

>And so on and so on.  I guess we could say that 25,000 is great but it
does
>need to keep moving forward, right?

Yes, the applications must improve and be added too. Fortunately, they are.

>I'm probably being dense here but I don't understand what you are trying
>to say here.  And I'm not trying to berate you  :-)

What I'm saying with that is that "new blood" applications have a better
shot at "best of breed" in the feature set because they have the existing
applications to look at for determination. As a result, if the new apps
are being written for the NT platform, NT has the better shot at best of
breed. 

>Well, if the decision is based on one advertisement and one package
>how much effort is it to find another one?  Is research really needed?
>Most
>cases  you could spend 5 minutes thumbing through News/400, MC, or
>Midrange Systems and find something.

Odds are, it wasn't an ad, but a product review that our boy saw. Ads are
interesting, but they don't tend to make the sale. Product reviews are
more sneaky, we expect them to be from neutral parties and they do give us
some real example of what can be done. 

When you look in News/400, how many of the 25,000 applications do you see
showcased there? I have been waylayed before by thinking I could find what
I wanted by paging through the trades. 

>In this light I would have to say you are correct.  Question though.
>How often does this happen:  Bob reads application ad, Bob believes
>application can save money or generate revenue, Bob buys
>application, Bob implements application, application cuts costs or
>generates revenue just the way the ad said it would?

>My experience has been that the failures exceed the success's.
>The longer the decision process is the better the success rate.
>Is Bob's management by advertisement worth the failure rate?
>How many applications are out there and being used, not
>considered a failure, but never lived up to the cost savings or
>revenue generation that was promised when bought?  How many
>silver bullets never get shot or when they do there duds?

I don't recall saying he saw an ad, I could have sworn what I said was he
found something he wanted in a magazine. But that is really beside the
point.

Bob is a manager. He is paid to manage his area. If he is bad at it, he
should be fired. The guy judging that should not be an MIS manager. It
should be Bob's boss. Just as the MIS guys know how much time they can
afford to spend on an internal project, Bob probably has some idea of what
kind of investment he can make in something that is iffy. But I simplified
very much in Bob's case. 

Bob might call the 800 number listed for the vendor. He probably would
call a couple of manager friends of his to see if any of them are using
this product. Odds are, he will ask someone he thinks of as a "computer
genius" if they know anything about it (just like I get asked if I can
help tune an Excel macro because I can program in RPG). At some point he
will decide that he feels the cost is worth the risk. This is why he is so
pissed when MIS wants to re-evaluate his decision. He doesn't think MIS
people have any right to manage his area. 

>Agreed.  I would like to see and do still see the benefit of increasing
>brand awareness of the AS/400 on it's own merits.  Would this not help
>attract vendors to the system?  I've heard Rochester is hard at work
>at getting vendors to port their apps but......

Oh, yeah, brand recognition IS important. It is very useful when a
customer knows they have a choice. I drink Coke. When there is a choice
between Coke and Pepsi, I buy Coke. But when there is only Pepsi that is
fine with me. That's branding.

>Agreed.  Again though, doesn't advertising the AS/400 help those
>very intelligent forward thinking software developers?

They might. If the developer doesn't think the AS/400 has longevity,
though, I don't think the ads will sway him. 

>I don't see JAVA as THE savior for the AS/400 but it definitely can be
one.
>If
>the developers centralize on JAVA for applications development....it
might.

Well, you're right. There are other possibilities, but nobody has really
utilized them. We'll see, but I think Java is the best shot.

>Chris, hopefully I don't come across as terse as I think I might.  If I do
>I apologize.
>You and I agree on a lot more things here than we disagree.

Hey, I enjoy the discourse! I think we agree on a lot, too. We might
disagree on our views of management and how much impact we feel different
advertising directions might have or whatever. But that's fine.

I am used to the problems of text only communication. For instance,
earlier in this thread I asked about NT ads and the responses I got
indicated that some people felt I was just being snotty. It's tough to
tell when someone is asking a question and when they are being sarcastic.
So, best to just ask if you don't know. 

I hope that I haven't come across as being hostile. I really don't like to
argue. I love to stand on an AS/400 soap box and tell the world why I
think this machine is the kingpin. 



Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net
You have to ask yourself, "How often can I afford to be unexpectedly out of 
business?" 
Get an AS/400.
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