Re: BPCS 4.0.05CD -- BPCS-L

Paul,

You're not kidding ("comical if not pathetic")... We are running 4.0.03 Live 
and 4.0.05
in Test and are doing our Y2K testing against 4.0.05/6. We started last fall 
with SSA
BEFORE the 4.0.05CD deal, and while there were some GREAT folks we dealt with, 
others
were clue less. We JUST wanted the latest 4.0.05 tapes (and ya, I know it's 
old) in
RISC. We had 4.0.05 but it was CISC... but their STUPID key programs and 
installation
programs were non-observable so the install kept blowing up... ALL we wanted 
was for
them to recompile the key and installation programs for CISC non-obversable and 
get
those to us so we could use the tapes we had. You would have thought we would 
have asked
for a blank check or something. "WHY would you want that", WHY would you not 
want to go
to 6.0 (we do, just not NOW...), etc. "There is NO WAY we can do that because 
we don't
have the source anymore, that's another part of the house, etc. It was UNREAL. 
They
would try to get us new tapes...

Guess what - THEY couldn't FIND it ANYWHERE (at first) or reproduce it. They 
FINALLY got
a version off of one of their non-support line AS/400's (can't remember what 
that group
was called but they WERE helpful... Thanks Eilsa YOU are a treasure !!!!). I 
don't know
HOW many tapes they sent us before we got the what was supposed to be what we 
wanted. We
then had to "layer" all of this together and do a TON of other stuff... I have 
SERIOUS
doubts that we will EVER be able to do this over any other environment (and I'm 
NOT
alone in our shop...)..

It was during this time that "Good Ole Roger Covey" came to us via a conference 
call to
the masses and announced the CD deal. The call was VERY heated and he got VERY 
agitated
when a couple of other companies pushed for a Y2K fix for these other versions 
and what
was so hard about that...

HOPEFULLY the new folks will be MUCH more customer focused. I understand that 
companies
can't support releases forever, but the initial "push us to 6" for the Y2K fix 
was
totally unfair. Maybe if it had been a proven product at that time, sure, but 
not that
way. And then to come out with the CD stuff and charge for it...

I DON'T want this to be a SLAM SSA message. We picked BPCS over a number of 
other
products because we saw it as the best one out there and still feel that way. 
We are
running our business on it (and it was a MAJOR re-engineering of the business) 
and
things are MUCH better now. It's just when they pull some of the stuff they do, 
they put
us in difficult positions with upper management, etc. We would rather avoid 
these types
problems concentrate on growing our business. It wouldn't be all THAT hard, 
they just
need to refocus on the CUSTOMER !!!

It would be interesting who worked out what behind among the BIG companies, 
because this
whole issue just seem evaporate...

Oh, well...

Continued good luck and hang in there...


Paul wrote:

> Chuck,
>
> Always good to know your not alone! Thanks for the sympathies! Finally got 
>the BASE
> CD product loaded and the key to apply. I had to download ANOTHER fix from 
>their FTP
> site and put it up. Not sure why I'm so different... But anyway, I get the 
>base
> product loaded, which was on 5 1/4" cartridges, then I dig out the PTF tapes 
>which
> is on 6 1/4" cartridges (that's right, 6 - one more than the whole product) 
>and
> proceed to install it. What do you know, it is done after tape 3. I call the
> helpline back and they don't know if it should have taken more tapes, nor can 
>they
> tell me if the 394 objects restored to BPCSCDPTF1 is the correct # of objects 
>or
> not! It's really quite comical, if not pathetic, wouldn't you agree?
>
> Paul
>
> Chuck Lewis wrote:
>
> > Paul,
> >
> > SSA (and their "alliance partners") have got to be the WORST when it comes 
>to
> > keys... I don't fault the folks that answer the phone, it's whoever came up 
>with
> > the STUPID way they do things. I won't EVEN get into, if PC vendors have 
>gotten
> > away from this garbage, SSA still feels a need (but they aren't alone 
>there). I
> > just WISH they could write a program that would be part of there base 
>library
> > that would include a "master key" that through a secure database would know
> > about ALL alliance products and that there would be a way (say through ECS 
>or
> > something) to enable different modules. When we went from CISC to RISC 2 
>years
> > ago, the RSS people had to provide THREE keys because theirs are DATE 
>sensitive
> > and we were not sure what day (Saturday, Sunday or Monday) are upgrade from 
>a
> > BIG 320 to a BIGGER 530 would be ready to start loading RISC application
> > "upgrades". Then I don't know HOW many times we have been told we are 
>getting a
> > PERMANENT key and it ends up expiring...
> >
> > OK, I taken a deep breath and will be OK now <BG> you have my sympathies !!!
> >
> > Paul wrote:
> >
> > > I'm in the middle of a migration and we're having a hard time getting a
> > > temporary key to work on my RISC box just to unlock the software!! It's 
>very
> > > frustrating because you play telephone tag with SSA helpline and you 
>usually
> > > end up with a "try this and if it doesn't work call me back." That cycle 
>can
> > > take a day sometimes!
> > >
> > > Paul
> > >
> > > Mario La Rosa wrote:
> > >
> > > > Does anyone know of any companies that are actually live and using BPCS
> > > > 4.0.05CD in production??
> > > > +---
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