Re: More bitching about IBM (was More SQL precompiler)

(cc'd to midrange-nontech because it's way off-topic in rpg400-l)


From: "Nathan M. Andelin"

> Those must be the same folks who wrote Y2K incompliant applications in the
> 80's and 90's.  Short sighted!  But admitedly, there were a goodly number
of
> them.

You might be right!


> On the other hand, there are a few of us who are investing in the iSeries,
> and believing that it's the best platform to host business applications.
> Including new applications.  I write new RPG code, almost daily.  And have
> been doing it for the past few years.  And expect to keep doing it for the
> foreseeable future.

I know you write middleware, but do you write new applications - as opposed
to maintenance and enhancements of existing apps? If so, are these for
resale, or are they in house projects?

I happen to have the February 2002 issue of iSeries News sitting on my desk
right now. Of the dozens of ads in the magazine, only three are for business
applications, and they're found at the very back of the magazine. The rest
are hawking middleware and utilities. I'm sure you're aware that utilities
don't sell new AS/400's.


> In my experience, IBM Business Partners and ISVs rarely milk anybody.  In
my
> prior employment, our company worked very hard to generate annual revenue
of
> approximately $75,000 per person.  At the same time IBM was generating
> annual revenue of approximately $250,000 per employee.  And Microsoft was
> generating $500,000 annual revenue per employee.  I haven't check the
annual
> reports recently, though.

What kind of revenue? Consulting services, maintenance upgrades, etc?
There's anything wrong with those billable services, but they don't do
anything to expand the size of the market. Where are the new products, and
the new customers? That's what I meant by milking the installed base.


John Taylor