Re: Mapics & Java. Rant mode *ON.

-----Original Message-----
From: Wynn Osborne <wynn@praxis.net>
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Saturday, May 30, 1998 10:02 AM
Subject: Mapics & Java. Rant mode *ON.


>Preface: I am assuming that "Mapics" means MAPICS, the "manufacturing
>package". If not, I apologize for the following rant.
>
>It was said:
>
>>The company that I work for has entered into a joing agreement with Mapics
>for
>>Java development.
>
>This I gotta see. Mapics, the supreme piece of garbage, enhanced by Java.
>
>Questions:
>
>-How can garbage be enhanced by *anything* so that it is no longer garbage?
>-Who in their right mind would buy MAPICS today?
>-If MAPICS was *the* package of the 21st century, how many of you (behind
>me) would change careers?
>
>Inquiring minds want to know.
>
>Signed,
>Wynn Osborne,
>President of PDM, Programmers for the Destruction of MAPICS (not to be
>confused with the beloved Product Data Management module).

Wynn,

Although in the past there was good reason for your point, I submit that you
cannot have looked at any recent release of MAPICS if you feel that strongly
that it is "garbage".  Keep in mind here that I am the person who coined the
term "MAPICS victim", and I've worked with the bloody thing and one of its
predecessors (MMAS) for 20 years now.  My respect for MAPICS is grudging,
but they have now earned it.

MAPICS is not as flexible as JDE.  It is not as powerful as SAP R/3.  It
doesn't have as many bells and whistles as BPCS.  BUT - it's as reliable as
any of them (by all accounts, much more so than BPCS Release 6).  It's
supported as well as or better than any of them.  It's easier to implement,
and to upgrade releases, than any of them.  There are TWO different versions
of it which are Y2K compatible, MAPICS/db Mod Level 4 and MAPICS XA Releases
2 through 4, and upgrading to whichever version the customer wants to go to
is supported by MAPICS Inc from ANY version of MAPICS ever shipped, even
S/34 MAPICS I.  Its client/server modules have a Windows user interface
which is as good as any shipped to date by anyone, including JDE and SAP.
AND IT'S USUALLY THE LEAST EXPENSIVE TO INSTALL MAJOR ERP PACKAGE FOR THE
AS/400!

If your experience with MAPICS was MAPICS II when it was so screwed up, or
during the teething woes of MAPICS/db Mod Level 3, I understand where your
opinion that it's garbage came from.  However, Mod Level 3 was cleaned up in
1993, and MAPICS II has been a dead horse since 1989.  In 1998, MAPICS XA is
a good product with a lot of value - don't condemn it without really looking
at it.


---
Dave Shaw, General Nutrition, Greenville, SC (just down the road from BMW -
Bubba Makes Wheels :)
The opinions expressed may not be my employer's unless I'm sufficiently
persuasive...


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