RE: Microsoft targets IBM midrange server customers

Chuck,


Ahhhhh, the $64,000 question.  The answer is that our management (lacking
spines and a few other anatomical parts that I will not mention) did not
feel comfortable fighting the 'standard'.  One problem is that this
information did not go very high up......due to political
circumstances.....the other is I think our VP of IT decided that if he was
going through the risky SAP implementation he would rather implement it via
their standard in case the implementation flopped.....he didn't want a
system choice to be the source of blame.....Not a smart move from my
perspective.........ignoring a general business rule regarding costs seems
rather.......ahhhhh, I've said enough to get myself in trouble....

What was rather interesting is that our parent company as well as the
consultant that we selected went out of their way to create imaginary
technical hurdles to help enforce the need for the standard.  I'm talking
completely fabricated issues.....

The one point I did not mention is that the i5 availability was the major
component behind making the iSeries an affordable solution
comparatively.......

Another piece of advice is that if you are considering SAP and you are
using the iSeries or contemplating it I would work with the Comtech Group.
I'm not affiliated in any way but I'm under the impression that they have
done the largest number of iSeries SAP implementations and you will get the
straightest story.....




Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN  47302
(765)741-7696
(765)741-7012 f
(800)428-8642

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just"  Abraham Lincoln






                                                                           
             Chuck Lewis                                                   
             <clewis@xxxxxxxxx                                             
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             12/16/2004 08:52          AS400 / iSeries                     
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That is VERY interesting information Mike - thanks so much for letting us
know.

So did the company, in deciding to delay, at least drop the Windows choice
in favor of iSeries in light of this information ? Or were the blindly
insisting on that in SPITE of this information and that is what they can't
afford ?

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-nontech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-nontech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mike.Crump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:40 AM
To: Non-Technical Discussion about the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: RE: Microsoft targets IBM midrange server customers


Actually there were a whole bunch of quotes in the article....I just about
popped a vein......

Just so everyone knows we went through a SAP feasibility study here just
recently...thankfully it has been delayed because we can't afford
it........

1.)  Our parent company mandated Windows servers and SQL server as the
standard - they call it a business requirement (I still laugh over that
crap....)

2.)  I now know that the iSeries makes a phenomenal SAP server - anyone
that suggest otherwise does not know what they are talking about....

3.)  We priced a large hardware configuration - iSeries was slightly more
expensive than an xSeries implementation - less than 2% (remember what you
get with your hardware.........ahem.....just a database.....).

4.)  We priced a hardware, maintenance, software, and it's maintenance.
The iSeries was slightly less expensive.....approximately 5%.

5.)  When we included personnel - the iSeries was cheaper by over $750,000
per year.  That's right, significantly cheaper......

so..............

iSeries can't run SAP - bull
iSeries can't run SAP well - bull
iSeries isn't strategic to SAP - bull
iSeries isn't growing with SAP - bull (actually by % it is the fastest
growing platform)

back to the gist of the MS comments in the article....

iSeries hardware is more expensive - sometimes yes, sometimes no - in our
case it really wasn't....
iSeries is more expensive - bull - in our case it was by far the most
affordable platform to run......
Customers buy Wintel platforms to save money - sometimes yes and sometime
no.....in our case it would have cost us a small fortune........


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