Re: XA Today

I have to add to Kevin's remark about being prevented from downloading a printer file or single program. As part of our implementation 2 years ago, we customized the shop packet. It was a fairly minor change for us to make and the users were very happy to have had input and see their suggestions implemented. It was certainly not worth the price of a source code license, but since the code was available for download, we did it.

I hope Infor can consider providing some mechanism for small shops to perhaps 'purchase' code for a specific or limited number of programs.


Pete S.


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Kevin Mann" <KevinMann@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: MAPICS ERP System Discussion <mapics-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 13:18:40 -0500

As the initial "ranter", I am happy to see that Infor is active in these
discussions also. To Kevin Fox and Ross, Yes I have seen the
presentations on the future of XA, and I am exited about what we will
be able to do. I have seen many very promising things that are available
or will be available soon. I would agree that Infor is doing many good
things that Mapics didn't or couldn't do. But I believe that this
discussion has also shown an area where Infor may be lacking compared to
the "good old days". In order for me to learn about these new
applications from Infor, I have had to seek out places to see these
presentations which have been out of state. I am grateful that these
existing affiliates or former affiliates have allowed me to see these
presentations. Under Mapics, we had 3 local affiliates in my area. They
all had consultants that were well trained and very knowledgeable about
the latest applications. They would offer presentations at their
facilities as well as promote and run the local Mapics user group. It
was easy to find someone that had experience with these new products. If
there was a policy change, such as with source code, these changes would
be made known to us through one of these channels. These local
affiliates could also recognize that we are not all the same. They
realized that they were dealing with $10 million dollar single site
companies with 20 users and $500 million dollar companies with multi
sites and a 1000 users. I would like to think that an issue such as the
one that started this topic would not have gone this far. Is it really
Infor's intention to prevent me from downloading 2 or 3 print file
source codes and 2 or 3 source codes for PTF's that I'm trying to apply
over previously modified code? Or to pay an ALF fee on top of what was
all ready paid for these 5 or 6 downloads a year? Were there some users
abusing the download option and downloading entire apps?

It seems that from the varied responses that have come across this
topic, that not everyone is getting the same information. In order for
me to move my company forward, I have to convince my management that
these new applications are worth the investment and that they will not
be dinosaurs tomorrow. There are several packages or concepts that
Mapics has marketed to be the wave of the future but have ended up
fizzling out. Unfortunately, once management has bought in to one of
these that has gone nowhere, it makes it that much more difficult to
convince them. This is especially true when all I can do is show them a
Power Point presentation. There is no one to give them a first hand
experience of how this is working and how it will work in our situation.







Thanks,



Kevin



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