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-- SSA has announced V8 and subsequent release to V8, PRMS has done so as well. Infinium just announced V12, I think, so the releases are coming. The development staff of each product has been retained and significant investments are still being made in key technologies. but the only way to continue improving the products is to have the customer install base on OGS contracts. The CA example is correct, but SSA is not CA, they are in the ERP marketplace, which was a rounding error for CA. Mitchell K. Kleinman Executive Vice President CCS- an IBM Premier Business Partner mitch@ccseservers.com Office: (949) 261-3298 - Direct Mobile: (949) 922-2434 Fax: (949) 261-9164 (Embedded image moved to file: pic19115.jpg) |---------+----------------------------> | | "Tom Jedrzejewicz| | | @ San Pedro" | | | <TJedrzejewicz | | | Sent by: | | | bpcs-l-admin@midr| | | ange.com | | | | | | | | | 10/29/2002 09:15 | | | AM | | | Please respond to| | | bpcs-l | | | | |---------+----------------------------> >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | To: <bpcs-l@midrange.com> | | cc: | | Subject: Re: INFINIUM PURCHASE | >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| There seem to be two discussions going on here . . . both of them eerily remind me of what happened when Computer Associates purchased PRMS in the late 80's(?). CA proceeded to purchase two other tiny ERP packages. 1> The strategy discussion . . merging Infinium customers with BPCS and PRMS customers It is easy to criticize this decision, but there are valid reasons to do it. It seems that SSA-GT is trying to gather a critical mass of iSeries ERP customers to become a force in the market. If SSA succeeds in bringing the customers and the applications closer together, they will grow, and in fact the customer situation will improve. 2> OGS/Maintenance "extortion" After Computer Associates bought PRMS, they cranked up the support and maintenance charges over a couple of years, and engaged in the same license key extortion (I chose that word carefully) when customers upgraded. At the same time the level of support and the frequency of patches dropped dramatically. Clearly, CA was milking the cash cow; eventually virtually all of the PRMS customers dropped maintenance. If SSA follows the same pattern (and initially they appear to be doing so), the integration strategy will fail because we will all be too angry. If on the other hand, there is increased value for the increased charges, then the strategy has a great chance of working. However it works out, this is going to be interesting! >>> mkleinman@CCSESERVERS.COM 10/29/02 09:30AM >>> THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL OR ENTITY TO WHICH IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, downloading, storing or forwarding of this communication is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately via email and delete the message from your computer files and/or data base. Thank you. -- I disagree, I think the strategy is wonderful. By buying software brands and focusing on adding value by bringing those products up to current technology standards is a wonderful plan..Consider the following... JDE and Peoplesoft have world class financials and decent MFG products. BPCS/PRMS customers , now with Websphere, will get world class financials and one of the bet HR/Payroll products in the industry. SSA Can compete with any of these software companies on enterprise or stand alone solutiuons. The cross selling of these brands is wide open... Companies that do not want to buy a "new" package for instance will be able to add modules as they see fit..need plant Maintenance? Great SSA has it. Want world class financials? Great SSA has it. Need HR or Payroll? SSA now has the leading edge solutions for those as well with Web Self services... I thin it is a great move. Oh and by the way ALL software companies charge OGS in the same range as SSA-GT. Mitchell K. Kleinman Executive Vice President CCS- an IBM Premier Business Partner mitch@ccseservers.com Office: (949) 261-3298 - Direct Mobile: (949) 922-2434 Fax: (949) 261-9164 (Embedded image moved to file: pic00565.jpg) |---------+----------------------------> | | Tom Saprano | | | <sixfeetunder01@y| | | ahoo.com> | | | Sent by: | | | bpcs-l-admin@midr| | | ange.com | | | | | | | | | 10/29/2002 08:04 | | | AM | | | Please respond to| | | bpcs-l | | | | |---------+----------------------------> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | To: bpcs-l@midrange.com | | cc: | | Subject: INFINIUM PURCHASE | > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Well folks - Greenough has done it again. Diluted our BPCS value by buying another tier two player - Infinium. Spent $100 million to buy a company that isn't even on most analyst's radar screens anymore. Their process product is weak. The only redeeming value is their gaming and healthcare verticals which do have a market share is those respective industries. Since everyone is talking about OGS it is apparently clear that Greenough has indeed found the key to profitability - sock it to the current users for as much Maintenance revenue as he can get. With the CA, and now the Infinium acquisition he can get even more. Most of these customers are much like the BPCS customer in that they will stick with the iSeries and not bother with new technology. BTW, I don't think that SSA GT can force you to be on OGS to receive a key to run BPCS. As long as you comply with the terms of your contract and do pay them for upgrades etc., they would be forced to give you a new key without OGS payments. All new strategies work for a while - the bad economy is helping SSA GT because no one wants to, or can afford to make a change right now. It's much cheaper to fix it with bandaids and baling wire. However, elephants never forget, and as soon as the economy becomes brighter there will be a stampede toward the door to other vendors. The OGS extortion with bite SSA GT where the sun doesn't shine - then we'll see how profitable they will be! They are not doing what is best for the BPCS users - but what is best for Greenough and Cerberus Partners who really own this company. ASs usual it always comes down to money. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ This is the SSA's BPCS ERP System (BPCS-L) mailing list To post a message email: BPCS-L@midrange.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/bpcs-l or email: BPCS-L-request@midrange.com Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/bpcs-l. -- [ pic00565.jpg of type image/jpeg deleted ] -- _______________________________________________ This is the SSA's BPCS ERP System (BPCS-L) mailing list To post a message email: BPCS-L@midrange.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/bpcs-l or email: BPCS-L-request@midrange.com Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/bpcs-l. _______________________________________________ This is the SSA's BPCS ERP System (BPCS-L) mailing list To post a message email: BPCS-L@midrange.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/bpcs-l or email: BPCS-L-request@midrange.com Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/bpcs-l. -- [ pic19115.jpg of type image/jpeg deleted ] --
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