RE: AS400 Performance

Rick,

I do not know what criteria MAPICS uses for determining the price level of
annual maintenance. I can tell you that we recently "downgraded" from a
model 500 with a CPW rating of 43 and a processor group of 20 to a model
270-2248 with a CPW of 150 and a processor group of 5. MAPICS along with all
of our other software vendors saw this as a downgrade and our annual
maintenance was reduced by approximately $15,000. The first years software
maintenance fee reductions and reduction in lease payments gave us an ROI of
2 months. The new system has twice the disk space, twice the memory and is
rated three times faster. Our users are quite happy with the performance
gains.

Our local affiliate was unable to determine the new MAPICS fees because the
software MAPICS provided them does not support going down in size. They
contacted MAPICS directly and received the new pricing.

With the new system, the batch jobs cannot consume the entire processor;
there are 2 separate ratings, 1 for batch and 1 for interactive.

Regards,
Jon Le Roi
Director of Information Systems
Tegal Corporation




-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Henson [mailto:Rick.Henson@seatons-uk.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 12:58 AM
To: mapics-l@midrange.com
Subject: AS400 Performance


We are running MAPICS Version 4 on an S20 AS400.  When running reports the
machine is so slow it even stops people logging on.  This is getting to be
more than an irritation, it is now stopping people from doing their work.
We
have run the performance tools and an independent party suggested changing
some system settings in the way Batch and Interactive jobs are handled.
Quite frankly it made no difference at all.  The AS400 is about 4 years old,
it has done an excellent job.  Now I am told we could need a new AS400.  I
appreciate hardware has moved on a lot in 4 years.  Yesterday I was informed
if we do get a newer model AS400, MAPICS may charge more, because the annual
fee is dependent on what model AS400 it is runningon, i.e the faster the box
the more I pay.  As this was originally sorted out by Head Office Staff, who
were made redundant some time ago, I am trying to pick up the pieces.

Does anyone know what exactly MAPICS Pricing Policy is?  Is it related to
the speed of the processor/As400?  And is anyone else suffering with poor
performance?  Is it a simple matter of extra memory or whatever in the
AS400?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Rick Henson
John L Seaton & Co Ltd,
Hull,
Yorkshire
United Kingdom

e-mail:  rick.henson@seatons-uk.co.uk


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