iSeries - first impression -- MIDRANGE-L


Greetings  Folks
How about a different take on showing an iSeries

Picture this;

Imaginary conversation with person who is being introduced to the iSeries
for the first time and a iSeries person sitting at a PC attached to an
iSeries.

Background:      Person being introduced(Mr. M.S. Winslow)  is a management
type who will not work on the machine, however he  is the one responsible
for making the decision as to which platform they buy.     Person showing
the iSeries (Mr. C.P. Frank) is showing "What this machine is".

Mr. Winslow,   So what is this iSeries machine CP ?

Well let me show you,  (CP pulls up Ops Nav)  This is the interface to the
machine MS,   Looks just like any modern machine you would own,   Graphical
Interface and all.   Here's the directory of the machine.   Oh,  this pane
shows all the print writers on the network.  See I can pull up anyone with
the click of the mouse and display the print that is queued up.    Very
easy huh MS ?

This pane here shows the Relational Data bases we have.   See I can just
click on a DB table and look at it.   And if I have rights to that table I
can just bring it up and edit it like a spread sheet.      M.S.:   Gee
that's pretty easy to use CP.      CP: Sure is MS,   Look how easy it is to
work with authorizations,   I can handle all the security with just a click
of the mouse.      CP:   This function is called Management Central   MS,
From this one pane,   I can basically control the entire network of iSeries
machines.       CP:  One of the great things about the iSeries as you have
already noticed MS,   is the ease of use aspect.

MS:   Sure is CP,   This is nothing like what that other vendor told me the
iSeries was like.      He Kept talking about some old machine with what he
called a "Green Screen"  whatever that is.    What was he talking about CP
?

CP:   <Chuckles>   Well,  I thought that is what they would say.   Look at
this MS,   (CP pulls up the START button,  Programs and Clicks on the
MS-DOS prompt)
       Do you know what this is MS ?      MS:  Sure that's the old DOS
prompt.    I remember that.   Haven't used it in a while.

CP: That's right.   It is still provided though for compatibility and for
anyone who wants to work in what's called a command line interface.   Most
people just use the Windows Graphical interface today.       MS:   Ya, the
mouse is easier for me.       CP:     Well the iSeries has a similar thing,
Here I will show it to you.  (Brings up a 5250  session)   See ?   This is
the equivalent to the MS-DOS prompt.    It's a command line interface.
It's there for the same reason the MS-DOS prompt is still there,
Compatibility,  and some people like using the command line,  You know
those programmer types.     Well anyway that other vendor probably is about
as up todate on what an iSeries is as some one who thinks Windows is a DOS
prompt.

M.S.:     Gee CP,   The iSeries is just as modern as anything I have ever
looked at.
CP:   take a look at this MS,   < www.basspro.com
http://www.jcpenneyjewelry.com   >   These are examples of iSeries
applications today.    I would suggest MS that you be careful  with those
vendors who haven't kept up with the market.      If he wasn't up-to-date
on the fact that the iSeries is Graphical and does Web hosting,    What
else is he leading you astray on?

MS  then says good by to CP and leaves.      Where by CP closes Ops Nav and
brings up the 5250 and goes back to work.

CPF and MSWin
--------------------------------------

I would suggest demo-ing the iSeries that way and make that analogy   of
GUI to Command line  like  Win -> DOS   is like  Ops Nav ->  5250.   Never
let the new client see the 5250.

Some times to people new to the iSeries the first impression is very
important.

BTW,   Writing this I realized that Windows was founded on the principle of
Denial of Service  !!      I mean    MS-DOS      Is that funny or what?

John Carr








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