A supplier's perspective >>> SSA licensing fees & OGS -- BPCS-L

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Over the last year we've talked with many BPCS users about the subject of this 
recent BBB discussion. Our net take-away is that the user community falls 
roughly into the five groups defined below. The groups are ranked in size from 
smallest to largest:

Group 1:  Convinced that an upgrade to v8 is a good idea in the intermediate 
term. The limited number of users in this group have few doubts about staying 
on OGS, despite the cost.

Group 2:  Got a relatively inexpensive long-term deal on OGS as part of their 
last license agreement. We recently learned about one company that still had 
well over two years left on such a bargain-level deal. Users in this group 
don't have the OGS price increase subject on their things-to-do list yet.

Group 3:  Have signed at least one OGS contract extension. The reasons for 
extending OGS included:  a) it was a way to address an unquantified fear of 
being cut off from access to BMRs, or  b) they wanted to migrate to version 6.1 
while under OGS, or  c) they had short-term plans to move to a different AS/400 
and had doubts about a new key, or  d) it was a way to keep SSA-related options 
open without the inconvenience of fully analyzing the manifold uncertainties, 
or  e) it felt like the safest decision because "it had always been done that 
way before."

Group 4:  An OGS renewal decision is currently blinking on the radar screen. On 
the pro side for renewing, these companies most frequently cite the 
"fear-of-being-cut-off-from-access-to-BMRs" point. On the con side, these users 
can't remember many emergencies they had to call OGS about during the last 
year. When they divide the OGS retainer by the number of mission-critical calls 
per year, the per-call sticker shock is really uncomfortable.

A small subset of Group 4 shops are thinking about a box upgrade ... but some 
of these users have solicited a new-key quote that turned out to be more 
economical than the quote for full-boat OGS.
  The "charge-for-a-new-key" concept has annoyed not a few companies because 
this concept was not defined in their license agreement. Many SSA license 
agreements included some sort of "perpetual right to use the software in peace 
and quiet" promise. Obviously, the need to occasionally upgrade IBM equipment 
is not breaking news .... so .... it seems unfair that the license agreement 
did not mention a charge for a key to enable the standard industry practice of 
moving to more modern equipment every now and then.

  By the way, accounting professors would probably view the value of a new key 
to be part of the asset capitalization of the new box rather than as an expense 
item that must hit the IS cost center in a single budget year.
Group 5:  The decision to terminate OGS has been made. Companies in this group 
feel that v4.05CD or v6.x operations have been stable for some time and that 
the risk of fresh software bugs is low/manageable. Many feel that even v6.1 has 
been out long enough to discover the vast majority of mission-critical BMRs. 
Just before their OGS expired, some companies in this group downloaded all 
existing BMRs into storage (just in case). Group 5 members have little or no 
appetite to change much about the software for the forseable future, except 
maybe to web-enable part of BPCS ... and that kind of initiative is unlikely to 
trip over new BPCS bugs.

Group 5 is comprised of two sub-groups:
    a.. Sub-group 5a members have arranged for some form of help-line support 
from another company. The rationale ranges from "it's a just-in-case insurance 
policy" to "the contractor quote was affordable/reasonable" to "SSA-GT isn't 
too interested in answering questions about something we've customized anyway" 
to "it's part of our IS department headcount reduction strategy." (Even some of 
the large, multiple-site BPCS users with deep, highly-talented technical staffs 
are members of this sub-group. These companies want the flexibility to assign 
the occasional BPCS headache to a contractor instead of interrupting progress 
on internally-managed strategic projects.)
    b.. Sub-group 5b members have decided to survive on their own. For the most 
part, that seems to work. It doesn't happen very often, but we do get a few 
"can-you-start-helping-us-right-now-by-signing-on-to-our-box-using-xyz?" type 
calls. This happens when the enterprise doesn't have the BPCS technical depth 
to handle the problem with confidence, or the go-to local resource is on 
vacation, or he/she is busy, or whatever. One such call came in recently: an 
inexperienced user had managed to crash his PC in the middle of a job and 
several hundred records looked like a terrorist had updated field contents.
If your company is in Group 4 or Group 5, consider evaluating the merits of 
this insurance policy:
    NoExcuses HelpLine support for BPCS
The start-up retainer is only US$200 ... and after that ... it doesn't cost 
anything unless help is requested. Information and reference letters can be 
found here: http://www.unbeatenpathintl.com/noexcuses.html

Warmest regards and God bless you,

Milt Habeck
Managing Partner
Unbeaten Path International

Toll free in North America:  (888) 874-8008
International voice line:  (262) 681-3151
e-mail:  mhabeck@execpc.com
web home page:  www.unbeatenpathintl.com
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