Re: IBM Spin Doctors on AS/400 Marketing

Mike,

In a message dated 97-11-11 18:27:31 EST, you write:

> >Dean, I asked a question back at the beginning of this thread that I
>  >didn't get an answer to. Not from you or anyone on this list. Have any of
>  >you ever bought a midrange system or seen a system bought because someone
>  >read an ad and said, "Hey, I like this HP/9000, let's go buy one!"?

I've seen it far too often  -- which has really been my point all along.
 Sometimes I or my employer (from a consulting standpoint) were the
beneficiaries, sometimes the victims and, in one instance, both.  In the
latter case, management tossed a perfectly good S/36 (that we supported) for
a LAN-based system that they saw at a trade show that was "tailored to their
industry".  We got them back two years later when the LAN didn't work out and
they saw an ad that the AS/400 would run their S/36 programs!

>  Maybe this is why I am so testy over this discussion.
>  
>  We did.  (I hate using we because I really had nothing to do with the
decision
>  but my company did).

<<snip HP stuff>>  

>  Intermediate result - we bought 3 HP9000 and wasted a ton of money.
>  End result - two of the systems have been sold and the third will be gone
>  by the end of this year (the only decent use was for an internal DNS
>  machine).
>  
>  I truly hope we are more of an exception but I don't know.

I see this more often in smaller, closely held corporations, but the big ones
can do it as well.  As long as the "Peter Principle" applys, there is going
to be some "management by advertisement".

>  One interesting point.  While the HP 'project' was floundering the same
>  exec brought in a copy of the ad on the HP Assault to help bolster
>  some support for his failing idea.   I just happened to have a copy of the
>  IBM response.......it did help.

Chalk one up for the good guys!

>  Now, this does not prove me right in all the other responses on this
>  subject but hopefully sheds a little light.

Thanks!

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"After thirty, the body has a mind of its own." -- Bette Midler
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