Re: Is AS/400 is dead ? You control the answer to that question!

On Tuesday 07 August 2001 07:36, John Myers - MM wrote:

> Ken & Tom (& the rest of you out there):

> The issues are clear ...
>    -  Without new folks entering the AS/400 area ... the platform will die
>    -  Without IBM marketing the AS/400 to the general computing community
> ... the platform will die

> The solutions are clear ...
>    - Hire & train new staff in the AS/400 (we have done so for years)
>    - Have your company be a IBM AS/400 Partners in Education sponsor for
> your local community college
>    - Tell your friends about the AS/400 ... send a letter to your local
> press touting the AS/400 every time that you hear another "Code Red"
> like-Virus story
>    - If ANYONE FROM IBM IS LISTENING ... PLEASE MOVE MONEY INTO THE
> MARKETING BUDGET ... EVEN AT THE EXPENSE OF NEW SOFTWARE FEATURES!!!
>
> I would rather spend $10,000,000 telling the computing world about the
> benefits of the AS/400 than spend $10,000,000 enabling the AS/400 to run
> Linux.

You know what, I couldn't disagree with you more. I don't think you are even 
in the ballpark of reality.

There are so many things wrong with what you've said, I don't know where to 
start.

Sure, we know the AS/400 is by far the best machine for what we are doing. 
But that is FOR WHAT WE ARE DOING. If you want others to look at the AS/400 
as a solution, you should consider whether or not they are doing the same 
type of computing. You wouldn't sell it as a desktop word processor, would 
you? 

Well, unless IBM continues to fit it with new technologies to match what the 
marketplace is interested it, the AS/400 will no more fit into the enterprise 
server market than it does the desktop word processor market. 

How far would your $10 million in ads go? How insane is that? You'd go around 
advertising AS/400s? To who? Why would someone go out shopping for a 
platform? 

Business looks to solve business needs. If you have a solution for those 
needs, then buyers might be interested. It astounds me that people think 
execs and directors are sitting around a table somewhere saying, "People, we 
need a new computing platform!"

They might be saying, "We need a more reliable web site." or "We need to be 
able to tie our existing operations to the new e-business operations we are 
developing." or plain old "we need a way of getting the general ledger info 
from the company we just bought onto the desktops of the execs responsible 
for managing it." 

So, you'd spend $10 million to put coupons on soda cans? I hear that works 
good for advertising. And some soda drinker somewhere would suddenly say, 
"Man, I can get $5 off my next AS/400 so I'll run out and buy one!"

When you think of marketing a product, try to envision the buyer you are 
trying to reach. How many ads did you see for the AS/400 (S/3x) before you 
bought your first one? When you bought it, did you buy the platform and then 
go around the company asking people if they had an application they wanted 
implemented?

> On that note, let's take this conversation off line (if you want to
> continue it) ...

Does that mean that only your opinion is suitable for public forum?

If David has asked us to not have conversations about this, I am sorry that I 
have missed it. I know there has been talk about opening a different list for 
such discussions, but I don't recall seeing anything that told us to shut it 
down. I am truely sorry if I missed such a post.

> John Myers

-- 
Chris Rehm
javadisciple@earthlink.net
If you believe that the best technology wins the
marketplace, you haven't been paying attention.
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