RE: Software without the Vendor support

My questions would be...

Does the app work well (or well enough) now in terms of functionality &
stability?  Can you add enhancements without vendor support?

How is licensing handled?  Can they survive a change in system serial
number due to business continuity or new system purchase?

Can they live without year end updates, bug fixes, release updates?

Does the package meet client-side requirements (GUI front end, Client
Access, etc.)?

Is vendor assistance needed to develop 3rd party interfaces?  Like EDI
as you mentioned but also client file feeds and the like.

Is app, system, and network security already sufficient?  Can it
withstand changes to the network environment?  Can it be accessed
remotely if necessary?

In a pinch, is a time & materials support option available?

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.  It repeats some of
your issues, of course.

Personally, I refuse to work on unsupported hardware, OS releases, or
application software.  If a system I manage has an issue, the business
is counting on me to get it resolved.  So it's my rear on the line if a
problem can't be fixed.  As such, I count on having the vendor available
to assist me in fixing the problem and to take the blame (at least from
a management perspective) if the problem cannot be fixed.

- John

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Phillips [mailto:niceguy420l@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 5:13 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Software without the Vendor support


Hi all,   I am looking at a situation where a company purchased a
software package on the AS/400 written in Cobol. For reasons that are
not important, they want to see if they don't need vendor support for
about 18-24 months at which time they expect that they can purchase a
new package if that is a critical need. Now, how do you analyze the How
and If''s. For example, how will you do updates to tax codes, industry
regulatory changes, EDI. From a code perspective, how do you measure in
time, how long it will take to understand all processes by code or
calling modules. These are just some of the ideas that occur to me.
Conceptually is this all there is? Looking forward to your input, Rob400



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