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Dale, In your comparison you should also compare costs with competing ERP packages. One of the downsides of a heavily legacy product like XA is that everything is ala carte. With newer packages the capabilities are better integrated and considered a core part of the base system, therefore no extra cost. Most of the more current packages also have a far more current feature set with support for many things XA users have traditionally had to code themselves or find an addon for, not to mention much easier customization. Finally, there is a substantial benefit to coherent integrated technology aimed at preventing bugs through design than remediation. Does anyone really want Java, RPG, Visual Basic, ASP and Smalltalk all rolled up in one package? Good luck in your comparison. Regards Konrad -----Original Message----- From: Walker, Dale [mailto:DWalker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 11:57 AM To: mapics-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: ALF Expense Analysis I am in the midst of analyzing our ALF costs/benefits and am involved in ongoing talks with my MAPICS affiliate regarding the continual annual ALF increases that we have been experiencing with the goal of working towards a mutually beneficial solution. I only wish that our business could impose considerable price increases like this each and every year. >From a personal perspective we have found ourselves in a position where the ALF expense is consuming a significant enough portion of the budget that it is now directly hindering our ability to implement and leverage some of the newer modules and I have to believe that we are not alone in this situation. If left unchecked, we will surely find ourselves essentially "left-behind" because of the heavy baggage that we carry each year with the mounting ALF charges. As many of you have most likely done in the past I am talking with various MAPICS accounts in order to make a comparison between ILF & ALF charges and to determine what the "norm" is. My initial goal was to use this data for internal decision making purposes only but if you wish to receive a summary of my findings you can send me your statistics as noted below. I will share my findings with those who chose to participate but I will not disclose any company names. * Modules installed & current ALF charges for each * Concurrent user license? If so, how many? * Tier based license? If so, what tier? How many average concurrent users? * ALF price changes +- occurring in past years * Include any comments regarding your satisfaction of the value of ALF expenses. Improving satisfaction? Decreasing satisfaction? Neutral? * Company name & contact email address Being in IT for 20+ years I can appreciate the difficulty of how software solutions are priced; both in terms of initial acquisition cost and ongoing support costs. If ever there was a topic ripe for controversy this is it. There is a little black area, a little white area, and a LARGE gray area when it comes to software pricing. The intent of this exercise is not to initiate some sort of widespread witch-hunt but is aimed at helping those who participate to determine how each of our individual ALF charges compare with other MAPICS accounts by using a direct comparison of actual charges incurred. Based on this information we should all be able to make better informed decisions in the future. Dale Walker VP, Management Information Systems Gross-Given Mfg. Co. / Automatic Products Intnl' St. Paul, MN direct 651-290-4349 fax 651-224-5559 cell 651-270-4150 dwalker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.automaticproducts.com <http://www.automaticproducts.com/> _______________________________________________ This is the MAPICS ERP System Discussion (MAPICS-L) mailing list To post a message email: MAPICS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/mapics-l or email: MAPICS-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/mapics-l.
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