RE: Advanced Job Scheduler

IBM is a giant in the IT industry. They have the capabilities of Watson to use as much as they want. Why can't they build an online ordering system that knows and understands the relationship between their hardware and their software and my needs and tell me what product I should be ordering that is right for me? A Watson powered IBM Business Partner. I do still like to talk to my BP on a regular basis and have them come see me to keep in touch with my needs and business and make recommendations I may not have thought of, but if I know I want BRMS added to my existing system I should be able to order it myself and download and install it immediately.


Mike Cunningham
VP of Information Technology Services/CIO
Pennsylvania College of Technology



-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Aaron Bartell
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 9:42 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Advanced Job Scheduler

Jim,

Thanks for the response. It's time we get creative and move on from our old ways of thinking. If I were to summarize your statements: It's monetarily risky to purchase software from IBM.

What if we could remove that risk because it was dead simple to obtain software trials and payment was metered?



Aaron Bartell
litmis.com - Services for open source on IBM i


On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 8:17 AM, Jim Oberholtzer < midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Aaron,

At the risk of hacking a few people off I must strongly disagree.
First off I am NOT a business partner with IBM. I do work with one
when the need arises. I am however IBM certified in design and
implementation of Power8:

IBM Certified Technical Sales Specialist - Power Systems with POWER8
Enterprise V1 IBM Certified Technical Sales Specialist - Power Systems
with POWER8 Scale-out V1 IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i V1
Too many others to list here....

98% of the customers would order the wrong thing, pay too much for it,
and not get what they want. Configuring a Power8 box while much
easier than it was with Power5 still has many options and depending on
the circumstance one option might not fit the customer's need vs.
another. It takes an experienced and knowledgeable individual to get
that done. That's why IBM requires all business partners to get
certified, and reviews the orders carefully. In the end it saves
money to do it right once, rather than back into the correct solution.

These comments apply to software as well. AJS is an example that is
simple, there are no dependencies but BRMS was discussed in this
thread as well.
There are dependencies there (Media and storage Extensions for one)
and if there is encryption included then the options start to get complicated.
Only a certified business partner is going to know how to make the
order once, correctly, and satisfy the customers need.

What about other software products on the system that have conflicting
dependencies (WAS and Domino come to mind almost immediately) do the
customers really understand all of those things?

I would agree that in the case of AJS it should be simple, but then
again maybe not.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Aaron Bartell
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 8:02 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Advanced Job Scheduler

Call your Business Partner.

I almost bit my tongue, but decided against it.

Am I wrong to be fed up with the need to contact a business partner to
gain access to products I already know I want to buy? IBM (Steve
Will) is agreeing that automation** is an ingredient of success. I
see the formal IBM Business Partners as an unnecessary hurdle to get
over. Imagine a world where I could click and pay on a web page to
get new products installed on IBM i in 2 minutes. What am I missing?

**http://bit.ly/youandi-strategy2015

Aaron Bartell
litmis.com - Services for open source on IBM i


On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

What it all boils down to is:
Call your Business Partner.

While it would be nice to simply find a list price on the internet
and be done with it many software products simply do not work that way.

IDK why. I have my suspicions:
1 - To avoid sticker shock we want you to listen to our siren's.
You can't resist their voices.
2 - No one pays list. That's just there to gouge you on maintenance
at x% of current list price.
3 - As long as you're looking at... you should really look at ... also.
4 - Honest attempt to make sure you're buying the right thing. Or
don't buy 5770-xyz when you may be entitled to a free upgrade from

5761-xyz.

Now, if you're trying to convince your boss and he's the only one
who is allowed to contact your business partner, then I can
understand your reluctance.

Some of the BP's on this list are getting tired of answering such
questions. Irks them when they do all the research and then you
contact your national BP who only says tell me what they told you
and undercuts the price.

Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com

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