Re: Java and the AS/400

** Reply to note from DAsmussen@aol.com Wed, 26 Nov 1997 23:04:39 -0500 (EST)
> 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 isn't that exactly what the ads (you don't like) are trying to change?
IBM services offers support for NT, Unix, OS/400, etc. 

If the ads are intended to sell a solution, maybe they don't care if the site
is one with hardware or just an idea. It could be a guy trying to sell
artwork out of his garage or GM trying to create a customer channel for
replacement parts ordering. 

IBM services DOES support a lot of non IBM stuff. Of course, that includes
NT. How far it goes, I don't know because I don't use them. 

I think we are all most familiar with using IBM Global Services as an
implementation service for IBM gear, since that is usually when an IBM
customer is likely to see them. But IBM has expanded their service offering.
Perhaps this will allow them to open more doors and just maybe ship more
400s.

> 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?

Is there a typo in there somewhere? It looks like it says your former
employer lost the contract because it was something they hadn't done before,
but then it says that IBM doesn't care if the company has done it before.

Aside from that, there could be a million reasons why the contract was lost,
but none of them is valid in considering the value of the ads. If what you
are saying is that you feel like companies (buyers) don't care if their
vendor has ever done this sort of thing before, say so. 

> 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."

But the buck don't stop there. Over the last decade many new MIS
professionals have been introduced into the marketplace. Probably a
significant percentage of those people are of the Microsoft work force. That
would be people who work on Windows based machines and pretty much are used
to rebooting on a regular basis and are not bothered when the vendor of their
software announces it today and sells you a bug ridden beta version three
years from now. 

It's easy to say these guys are stupid, but I think it's really that this is
the reality they have "grown up" with. Anyway, this is the same group of guys
that would see a product announcement and think, "With that, we could do x or
y." They could download an alpha or beta off the internet and put together
some examples. Now that they are thrilled, they start to make plans with this
product as part of their future direction. 

The CEO will hear about the amazing new plans and exciting new features, and
will probably brag about them (you know how upper management likes to brag
that they are the best in the business). 

But it will be years before the announced product is actually ready for use.
MIS guys who are trapped by their own big mouths may be stuck trying to
implement the beta (like, say, NT 3.11) or waste thousands of man hours
trying to come up with some other solution. 

These are the guys that I think give upper management the idea that MIS
people really don't know what they are doing. 

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

That is exactly the point. It is the point of the ad! Very few people really
know what eBusiness means to them. The don't know what it is or how it will
affect them or what it's potential is. All they know is that the Wall Street
Journal makes a big fuss over it, and they should learn about it in case it
isn't just a fad.

> 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...

Not completely true. IBM also has a philanthropy effort where they give or
match dollars spent on implementing computing changes. I posted the URL where
they talk about this, I also got an email the other day that they awarded
another round. 

Now, this isn't much, just a few millions I think. But it's better than
nothing. 

I would like to see them provide hardware to school systems. But I think what
I would really like to see them do is provide an internet connection for
schools that accesses Advantis so that they can have a direct connect to
AS/400s that are maintained by IBM. IBM could upgrade the systems as they see
fit and use them for other purposes (public web sites, sales demos,
whatever). My guess is that there are a lot of CPU cycles sitting around
waiting for a demo or whatever that could be used. 

It doesn't add much to my overhead if I add a machine to my data center and I
already have all the experience on how to manage it sitting around handling
my other machines. In comparison, it adds a lot to my overhead if I don't
have existing AS/400 talent and I want to implement one for training students
with. 

Even people with a lot of AS/400 experience may have little or no knowledge
of Java or Notes or the AS/400 firewall. IBM has to keep people on staff who
are familiar with these topics anyway. If the Java guy is in England, it
doesn't make any different to him that the machine he is maintaining is in
Japan, or the US, he just logs on and does his thing. 

So maybe there is a way for IBM to structure donating Java workstations to
universities and hooking them to Advantis and then giving them use of some
subset of internal machines. 

Probably for a couple of million IBM could get some guys in house to figure
out a way to make this work. When done, this would not only get AS/400
education into the school system, but would be a living, breathing model of
the type of infrastructure IBM wants the world to adopt. Of course,
successful trainees on such a network would have a lot of good ideas to
implement when they entered the workforce. 

> Dean Asmussen
 

Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net

How often can you afford to be unexpectedly out of business?
Get an AS/400.
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