Re: WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO BRING NEW CUSTOMERS TO THE ISERIES

I absolutely agree Hans, with these added comments.
 
"Quality" in itself makes no value judgement. There is high quality and low
quality. Both the Mercedes and the Dodge can be of high or low quality. The
doors can fall off either vehicle.
 
"Value" is the right choice of course. However it isn't facts that matter.
Perceived value rules.  Advertising is so important because it creates
perception, and in my opinion Microsoft appears to understand that fact
better than IBM.
 
That's the way business really runs.
 
---------------------------------------------------------
Booth Martin http://www.MartinVT.com
Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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-------Original Message-------
 
From: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Date: 11/05/03 11:25:17
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO BRING NEW CUSTOMERS TO THE ISERIES
 
Booth Martin wrote:
> What ever happened to Tom Peters? Remember him? The guru of quality? His
> position was that top quaility would win out. Empirical evidence would
prove
> him to be sadly wrong whether one looks at Wal-Mart or Microsoft.
>
> In any event my point is that companies are learning that quality is of no
> consequence. With software the rule has become "Get it out there. If it
> catches on then you can fix it." Given that, how can we sell the iSeries
> with application packages? The iSeries is for those that want control of
> their own applications and don't like being held hostage to the moving
> targets of Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun.
>
> The iSeries is a niche machine. Keep it a niche machine and go after the
> niche market that can afford and appreciate the qualities of the platform.
> Talk up the control issue ("move at your speed, not theirs". "upgrade on
> your timetable, not theirs", "who's problems are your tech people working
on
> today, yours or Microsoft's?", "Tired of soaring user license and unneeded
> upgrade fees?"
>
 
Back in the 1980's, we in the Toronto Lab had to endure a number of
management fads, one of which was specifically directed at "Quality". We
all had to attend education sessions where the lesson was "Quality is
meeting requirements". Most of us objected to that cliche by pointing
out that some products have the characteristic "quality" and others not.
For example, a Mercedes Benz car has quality, but not a Dodge. (No
flames please!)
 
But the instructors did have a point, and perhaps "quality" was the
wrong term in the lessons. That is, if a Dodge meets your requirements,
then why buy the Mercedes? The key point in any purchase is not so much
"quality" but rather "value".
 
Of course, one consequence of the statement "Quality is meeting
requirements" is that the onus is placed on those defining the
requirements. But ultimately, for any business, you have to look for the
best /value/ that meets your requirements. If it's an application that
runs on an iSeries, then great! But if your needs are best met by an
application that runs on some other machine (like a xSeries, pSeries, or
zSeries), that's what you have to go for. 
Cheers! Hans