Offload from the AS/400

I am in a new "conflict" with a customer of over five years.  We won them over 5
years ago because their PC network had been down for 2 weeks, and it had been
down over 50% of the time for the last year.  They new that we were doing good
things with the AS/400.

Within two weeks, we rolled a used AS/400 in (their new one was on order), and 
we
replaced the main application on their PC network, a simple trucking billing
system.

During the next 5 years,  they have run their business with zero downtime due to
hardware or software, and everything is going swell.

Recently, their computer transactions doubled due to a new customer.  The 
revenue
from this new customer did not double, but the amount of "data entry" did.

They leased new trucks, hired new drivers, new billing clerks, etc.

Guess what, the 400 is slow!

They also just hired an MIS exec (the only MIS staff they've had in 5 years).  
He
has no AS/400 experience.

The problem is that the 400 is slow, and they need a solution.  The MIS exec has
all but convinced my previously happy client that they need to "offload" some
applications from the AS/400.  Get some things down to the PC's.

I said that if they wanted GUI, we could do that easier than writing our own
front end, using seagull, BOS, etc.

MIS exec says, "I'm not real hot on GUI, I just want to save the AS/400 some CPU
cycles"

Why?  Why take an application that works, but is slow, and rewrite it, re-test,
etc., on a PC?

They do not want to spend money to upgrade the AS/400, but will rewrite
applications on a PC!

It has only taken 5 years for the customer to forget the nightmare that was 
their
PC network.  In fact, the PC software company that is waiting (drooling) to 
write
all of these new applications is the one that was responsible for the old
network!  We replaced them, now their waiting do replace me!

My firm did not fail.  They got too big for their AS/400.  I'm going to have to
go up against a new MIS exec that obviously is trusted by my client (they pay 
him
big bucks) to convince them that the AS/400 is the way to go.

That "Spin doctors" thread on this list is related to this.  How can a PC have
the edge over 5 years of AS/400 success simply because someone says
"Client/Server"?

I offered to be part of  Client/Server application development, but they are
looking to rewrite existing applications, and just use the AS/400 as a server.
What do they need me for?  The PC company (which writes in powerbuilder) can use
ODBC to create, delete, etc., tables on my AS/400.  If there are no green screen
apps, I'm gone.

Cracking my nuckles preparing for a fight!
--
Art Tostaine, Jr.
Creative Computer Associates, Inc.
Parlin, NJ
atostaine_at_crecomp_dot_com


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