Re: CL enhancements

[Mark Lazarus <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Chris,

At 09:54 PM 3/11/98 PDT, you wrote:

>Mark, are you saying that IBM is your application vendor? You haven't come
>out and said so, yet you blame them, apparently as a tool vendor, for the
>company's defection from the system. 

 No they are not the vendor.  But part of the conversion decisions are
reliant on the DB functionality that IBM brought to the table very late.

>This doesn't make sense. I think you are mistaken. I don't see any reason
>the conversation you describe could not have included, "What does our
>application vendor say about Y2K compliance?" Are you saying that IBM
>should be blamed because they are the hardware vendor? The operating
>system vendor? The tools vendor? So, if you had been on NT you would be
>now buying AS/400s because Borland was too slow to act?

>Who is the application vendor? Or, if there is none and "one of the
>largest AS/400 customers" was using a completely home grown app, then why
>is IBM at fault? 

 There are several application vendors, but we couldn't upgrade the systems
since they were modified so much.  There are also plenty of homegrown apps.
 Also, as I've mentioned previously, the Y2K issue was not the only reason
they're defecting, it was just a major piece of it.  

 BTW, they did get a conversion quote from IBM and it ran into the millions.

 Either way, I think you're missing the point:  At times IBM loses sight of
what the customer needs / wants and then after enough complaints are
registered or sales are down, a new mwnager comes in and makes it "the year
of the customer" or whatever and we get listened to for a while. 
DISCLAIMER:  The IBMers listening / participating on this board are doing a
great job and really care!  I am referring to the process in general and
the Y2K issue in particular.

 -mark

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