Re: Java and the AS/400 -- JAVA400-L

Chris,

In a message dated 97-11-25 19:08:38 EST, you write:

> > I don't really know.  IBM kept their ineffective Warp ads on far longer
than
>  > was necessary, and I view the Dennis Leary "e-business" ads in the same
vein.
>  >  Where the _HECK_ is the product?  What does it do?  Under the old
journalism
>  > edict "Who, What, When, Where, and Why?", the "what" is always missing,
the
>  > "when" is etherial, and the "why" is often missing or so shortly
represented
>  > that everyone misses it.  The ads seem to promote only IBM's services --
are
>  > they going to drop hardware entirely in favor of this new "revenue
stream"?
>  
>  Well, there might be something to this. Not that IBM would drop any
division
>  that was still making money, but that IBM services makes a great margin
AND
>  helps to sell hardware. 

Yes, but IBM services tends to get involved only after the hardware is in
place.  If they were to offer a truly universal service, IBM should be able
to help with both DEC and HP without stopping at MQSeries implementations.
 IMHO, IBM services _DOES NOT_ help sell hardware -- they only (sometimes)
make an after-the-fact purchase work.

>  But I think that what we are looking at is probably a result of the rest
of
>  what we have been talking about. IBM advertises a solution to eBusiness.
Of
>  course, the solution is going to be different for every possible business
>  case, so they can't really just put some generic solution up. But what
they
>  do is represent people that don't really have answers but are working on
the
>  problem within a company. Then they say, "There is an alternative, because
>  IBM actually does this sort of thing."

Agreed, but what business wants to base its future upon a company that has
"done something similar"?  NOT IBM!  One of my former employers bid on
running IBM's warehouse here in Research Triangle Park.  They lost out
because they hadn't managed a warehouse of the same size and volume.
 "Actually doing that sort of thing" didn't count with IBM, so why should
their customers feel any better about it?

>  Now who do you suppose those people are who are bungling along? Do you
>  suppose that over the last 15 years or so upper management has sort of
gained
>  this perspective of MIS as a group that doesn't really have answers? 

I feel that, at least in part, the "rightsizing" movement has brought about
this perception.  As I've stated on numerous occasions, management has
expected nothing of mainframers -- and they have been richly rewarded.  Those
of us raised in the midrange arena have been expected to perform miracles
with bailing wire and glue, and have met every expectation.  Now the
mainframers are running the midranges...

>  I suppose that if I owned a company, about the third or fourth time
someone
>  told me this new (fill in the blank) was the silver bullet for all my
>  computing woes, I'd start to wonder if they new what they were doing. When
>  this looks like the majority of the computing professionals (and I base
this
>  on the number of NT/Novell/Banyan/etc. solutions likely to be recommended
>  over time) maybe there gets to be a perception that upper management needs
to
>  go out of house to look for solutions. 

Indeed.  To paraphrase what Wayne Madden stated at our LUG last month -- "I
asked our (now former) MIS Director what all of this equipment bought over
the last year had done to improve the business, when he couldn't answer I
canned him."

>  Also consider that a large number of web sites have been put up on the net
>  without turning a dollar in revenue. Perhaps IBM hopes to capitalize on
this
>  by point out that fancy pages and flashy logos aren't what they are
talking
>  about when they say eBusiness. After all, that's a problem for IBM too. If
>  business owners feel like all there is to the web is animated graphics
they
>  may be hesitant to dump money into a web site.

But the point is, who knows what they're talking about when they say
e-business?

>  > But the users are irrelevant from an advertising perspective, except in
small
>  > companies.  The only way to prove reliability to a user is to install an
>  > AS/400, and only management can dictate _THAT_!
>  
>  Oh, I agree with you for the most part. Users will seldom influence
>  purchasing. But sometimes they will. For instance, at one company I worked
>  for we hired an employee away from another company. She was to manage the
>  area responsible for room reservations. She worked with a programmer to
>  outline what sort of things she needed from the software (he was writing)
to
>  do business. 
>  
>  Demands on the programmer's time were very high. The question came up
often
>  as to whether or not we could just buy a package that would suit her
needs.
>  Unfortunately, all she could remember was the package she had been using
ran
>  on Windows. Now, I don't know if it really did or she telneted to a Unix
box
>  and ran something (I learned that they had a Unix server) or what. But
there
>  are some cases where selling a user can be a benefit. 

A few, but not many.

>  But is it enough to be worth ad dollars? I don't think so. 

Me, neither.

>  > I've spoken to this on _numerous_ occasions.  They should be seeing that
>  > local community colleges and universities have an AS/400 curriculum.
 IBM
>  > should assure that said curriculums are valid for the current hardware
and
>  > software.  IBM should encourage local businesses to get involved with
these
>  > curriculums.  Where possible, IBM should drop down to the high school
level
>  > with their education programs.  Nike and Adidas do it for sports, why
not IBM
>  > for the intelligencia?  Heck, I learned the S/3 Model 10 in High School!
>  
>  Well, IBM does give away and/or subsidize computing in schools. I am sure
>  more of that would help. 

As we've seen here, IBM does this -- with old technology.  If only we could
get them to donate the new stuff, there might not be such a shortage of
talent...

Regards!

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"It's a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn't want to hear." -- Dick
Cavett
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