Re: Soundoff in San Antonio (was: Anyone going to AS/400 Connection) -- MIDRANGE-L

Barbara,

In a message dated 5/27/99 6:18:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
BDeVries@cfund.org writes:

> Contrast this with Microsoft TechEd 99 in Dallas this week.
>  We get a briefcase, certification testing discounts. Lots of sessions.
>  MCP's were rewarded with a dinner, booze, Business card holder, cap,
>  followed by free night at THE Speed Zone (car racing) with more food and
>  more booze.

TONGUE MODE(*PLANTED) LOCATION(*INCHEEK) SCOPE(*FIRMLY)

Hey, IBM offers a "big ol' discount" for certification testing at COMMON.  
Uh, but apparently not the next one.  Lots of sessions at COMMON, uh, except 
the next one.  We get too much stuff as it is, shouldn't a wrist rest and a 
coffee cup be enough?

>  All I get from IBM is dumb commercials with "executives" walking with their
>  toes in the sand or people holding up incomprehensible "I AM" signs.  What
>  is that crap supposed to do for us?

My current primary client's R5 team supplemented their "I AM" signs with "I 
Used To Be" signs, and they don't run Notes on the AS/400.  Perhaps those 
"executives" have more than their toes in the sand, eh?

>  You can sneer all you want about the seduction of professionals by cheap
>  entertainment, physical pleasures and gaudy goodies, but the fact of the
>  matter is that our peer professionals ARE SEDUCED.  You can make all the
>  snide remarks you want about AS400 downtime versus NT problems, but if IBM
>  doesn't get real about marketing, it's all for naught, as people develop
>  application on the cool environment.  In the final analysis, needed
>  applications and the recommendations of IT professionals drive the selling
>  of the hardware.

ENDTONGUE

AMEN!  Why else would so many people attend the expo at COMMON?  If, and 
that's a _BIG_ if, I attend another COMMON conference I will avoid expo like 
the plague.  I can buy all those trinkets for less than it costs me in paper, 
phone time, and ink to respond to all the junk faxes and calls I get from 
vendors following a COMMON conference.  Despite their claims to the contrary, 
the type of treatment you described from Micro$oft is reserved for IBM 
clients that _might_ rival IBM's annual sales.  If you're GE, IBM will buy 
you hookers.  If you're GM of a small corporation, IBM _might_ validate your 
parking.  IBM claims that their "culture" has changed -- other than dressing 
poorly, I don't see it...

Regards!

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

"It's impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious." 
-- Anonymous
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