RE: Aldon and SoftLanding -- MIDRANGE-L

Around 1997 I was at a shop that brought in ACMS - saved our behinds in many ways. But I was frustrated with the promises Affinitit that did come to fruition at the time - maybe it has now.

Went to another company in 1999, one of the first things we did was get TurnOver. As I recall, one of my deciding points was the flexibility of TurnOver vs. the strict promotion structure of Aldon. Also, Aldon used to keep create information for everything in files, where TurnOver gets the information from existing objects at the time of creation - ACMS will take more space on your system. That's a very gross generalization, based on historical knowledge - haven't looked at ACMS in awhile. And what objects are in an application is handled differently - ACMS has this in files, again, where TurnOver basically uses the contents of a set of libraries as defining what is in an application.

Re: training, SoftLanding was able to do this over the phone for the change management piece, even 6 years ago. In either case, some kind of training is essential, especially if you've not used one of these things before. And with web conferencing, the remote training methods are easier - but I can't speak for what they will do.

We're using TurnOver at RJS primarily for change management. It has a very nice integration with WDSC - have not seen Aldon's, so cannot conpare.

HTH
Vern

At 07:06 AM 3/24/2005, you wrote:

Now that's an interesting assumption; that MKS' Implementer was being
considered. :)

It was, of course, and we rated it second behind Turnover.  So why is the
choice between Aldon and SoftLanding, you're thinking?

Well, our V.P. decided the only way he'll get the funds for a change
management package is by including some kind of browser based workflow/help
center piece.  SoftLanding has a very good package called ExpressDesk that
is fully integrated with Turnover for a list price of $6,000.  Aldon has an
excellent package called Community Manager for $2,000 per administrator
seat, but it's not as well integrated with their change management for
iSeries package.  That includes unlimited end user licenses to the product.

MKS naturally has a similar package called Integrity Manager, but the price
is prohibitive for us.  A list price of $8,000 for the server license and
$1,000 per end user license.  With thirty stores just in our division plus a
few people here in the main office, we just couldn't justify that much
money, especially when the other products are so much less.

Throw out the workflow/help center requirement and I'm asking about MKS
instead of Aldon.

Donald R. Fisher, III
Project Manager
Roomstore Furniture Company
(804) 784-7600 extension 2124
DFisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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You did not say why you chose these two over MKS..
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