Re: CL enhancements

** Reply to note from Mark Lazarus <mlazarus@ttec.com> Sun, 08 Mar 1998 14:06:28


> 2)  They lost the largest /400 shop in the U.S. Northeast, in large part, 
> due to this. 
>  
> 3)  In the example I mentioned above, the customer didn't care how it was 
> done, just that it got done within budget (or close.)  Once we combined the 
> cost of the tool and the labor, testing, installing, setting up a clean 
> environment for testing, etc., it wasn't worth pursuing anymore. 

Mark,

I cannot believe that a company would decide to leave a platform because
the manufacturer was not the "first out of the gate" with a Y2K solution.
I think you are paraphrasing here in order to make what you feel is the
point. 

I also feel it is pure fantasy to state that replacing a hardware
platform, converting all of the application data, retraining all of the
application staff, rehiring a new crew of technical expertise, etc. etc.,
is all less expensive and more timely than correcting the AS/400 based
data to a Y2K format. 

The conversion of date formats would be a fraction of the required
time/expense for converting the data to another application/platform.

I understand that you feel IBM could have been more timely with the Y2K
solution. I want to indicate that when IBM announced their product, there
were a number of polls released showing that the vast majority of MIS
shops did not have a Y2K plan in place. I am not saying that IBM could not
have released a product earlier. What I am saying is that I feel they were
certainly timely for a large market segment. 

I believe that if you or your client feel that migrating to another
platform is the less expensive, faster solution, then you are either badly
mistaken or the software product your customer is using is extremely poor. 

Now, if what you are going to say in response is that there are other
circumstances that make a migration more attractive, my response to you
is: That is exactly my point.

>  
>  -mark



Chris Rehm
Mr.AS400@ibm.net

How often can you afford to be unexpectedly out of business?
Get an AS/400.
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