Re: The age old question: -- MIDRANGE-L

Rick,

Software drives the hardware decision ... end of story!

I run an iSeries & xSeries reseller company, so please take everything that I say with an appropriately-sized grain of salt.

The answer for her is NOT to take a "tech-oriented" look, but more appropriately a "business-oriented" view. What issues are REALLY driving the NT option? They could include: - perception that NT is less expensive / more small business oriented / New Technology (MS is a GREAT marketing organization) - perception that AS/400 is old-technology - perception that existing software isn't as responsive to the business's needs as your friend thinks

In speaking with company presidents, I've learned that the "best" systems personnel are folks could make a living as a commissioned sales rep ... "perception" becomes reality ... if folks think that they have a kick-a$$ system, they do ... if they think that it "doesn't have the kick", it just becomes an a$$ in their mind!

If there is software running on another platform that can do the job more effectively, it becomes a legitimate option. I'm not going to try to debate "effectively", because that means many things to many companies. Let's define effective as having the lowest 5 year "Total Cost of Ownership" for this discussion. That's the filter that everyone seems to be using these days! With total solution leasing, the one time commitment of cash ceases to become an issue. Today, aggressive leasing companies will do deals on 100% software and services ... that allows the benefits of the solution to be matched against the payment for the solution!

It would be really helpful to know the industry that we are talking about ... then specific vendors on the list could give their $.02 in terms of that industry's perspective!

The geography is also important WRT the consultant issue ... how large is the local "talent pool"? I'm in the metro-New York City area with tons of competition. My folks have to be the best ... or we will be out of business (still kicking after 21 years). In less urban areas, the talent pool is thinner. If her system is securely open to the Internet, vendor personnel can do installs remotely ... cutting the expense and ensuring that knowledgeable individuals are doing the "heavy lifting".

The best strategy for your friend might be to "bite several small bullets" rather than take "the big one" ... it the existing software REALLY fits their business like a glove, she should address the deficiencies of the existing solution straight on! Hopefully, the cost of addressing the deficiencies will be significantly less than the cost of implementing a new system and, in many cases, changing the company to fit the new software!

At this point, there is NO good business reason to continue to cling to OV. I certainly wasn't happy that IBM dropped it, but hey, there are many alternatives in the marketplace. I don't know what function they are using in OV, so I can't make any recommendations.

My experience has been that the iSeries has adapted well to adding new technology to "legacy solutions" (I HATE THAT PHRASE). But "legacy" is the marketing message that your friend is facing (hello IBM???)!!!

The state of the art today in credit card processing is Internet-based credit card solutions (forget modems)!!! There are many credible iSeries solutions in this area, as well. Quite frankly, when we built the iSeries-powered www.ScoreBook.com, we didn't have to use iSeries credit card processing software at all ... we just passed off the transaction to the credit card processor's web services front end ... who returned the validation status back to ScoreBook.com's iSeries server!

Something as simple as an inexpensive "GUI Front End" can totally change some users' perceptions of the system. (Please have her view http://www.sbsusa.com/newsletters/sbsnewsletter-appmod.pdf for more on this topic). For a small shop like hers, this approach is much more effective than webfacing because it minimizes the technical risk. You would be SHOCKED at the change of perception that this one small change will make on end-users! Many users think that they have a "new system" ... rather than just a "new look" at the existing system!!!

I could go on, but I would rather address specific issues than generalities. HTH.

John Myers
IBM Certified Specialist - IBM iSeries Technical Solutions Design
IBM Certified Specialist - Advisor for e-Business
Strategic Business Systems, Inc.
17 S. Franklin Turnpike, Ramsey, NJ 07446  USA
E-mail: mailto:jmyers@xxxxxxxxxx   Phone: +1 (201) EASY 400   x131
Web:    http://www.sbsusa.com      Fax:   +1 (201) 327-6984

Get and route intelligence from your IBM AS/400 web site - WebSurvey/400
     http://www.WebSurvey400.com

At 10:12 AM 12/18/2003, you wrote:

situation:  A friend of mine works for a small business where they've had
an iseries running the business for quite a while, but the owner is
considering converting to an NT based system (for no good reason, IMO).

they are on V4R5 (they still use Officevision for a couple very important
things), and IBM won't continue to support them unless they upgrade.

some of thier current processes need to be modernized, (credit card
processing via modem, OV, things like that), and they've been burned by
consultants in the past and are gun shy.

the decision on conversion has been put off for a year, and they're looking
for options.   They don't want to commit to the cash to upgrade the
iseries, replace OV, etc, if they're going to go with the NT package.

My friend, rightly, is trying to convince them to stick with the iseries -
The system they use now is a heavily modified rpg package, and is now very
specific to thier line of work and would be difficult to replace with any
package, iseries, NT or anything else.   But it is a bit unwealdy, and the
perception of course is that it's old fashioned.  She needs ammo to back up
her advice.

I know this has been asked and answered, a thousand times, ad-nauseum, but
I've spent a while searching the archives and am not coming up with exactly
what I was looking for.

I remember a thread or even a single post or web page that put the
pros-cons together succinctly on the NT vs. iseries.   anyone remember it
and have it bookmarked?

Rick


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