A supplier's perspective >>> SSA licensing fees & OGS (sent without rich text formatting)

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:

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.)

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