Thank for your correspondence - The letter I got from the folks at FAST400

Hi,

Last week, I gave an interview to Newswire, the Internet newsletter put out
by Penton Publishing.  This promoted Colin Wells to write me the following
correspondence.  My public reply also follows:


 Mr. Barsa, in response to your statement from the newswire ("IBM
will ultimately beat up Fast400"), you sure are putting a lot of
faith in IBM.  IBM has already failed several times to defeat
FAST400.

 The response to FAST400 has been tremendous!  We have hundreds of
customers, some with hundreds of boxes, and some with large
multi-processors.


 We understand that your opinion is biased.  After all, you make
money from selling those expensive interactive cards. Please
mention us in your next Sound-Off speech at COMMON.


Colin Wells
The Storage Solutions Group




Below is my response, in the public domain:



Mr. Wells,

I agree that the response to FAST400 has likely been tremendous.
(Regardless if it has or not, if I were selling it, I would be claiming
that!)  However what you are doing threatens the entire AS/400 community.
The interactive pricing scheme is integral to IBM's pricing strategy for
the product line.  Whether you (or IBM) likes it or not, the ease of green
screen programming is one of the reasons why customers pick this platform
every day.   IBM makes this platform as the very best in the world, even if
that choose not to market it effectively.  (You notice that no one calls it
the iSeries, it's still the AS/400.)

My opinions regarding AS/400 technology are simply my opinions, based on
years working in this architecture.  Customers hire me (and my firm) every
day, and groups hire me to speak frequently because they respect those
opinions.  Privately, I speak to IBM regarding many of my thoughts about
the product line almost every day  They are free not to take my calls, and
not to follow my opinions, yet they take the calls and usually  take my
opinions.  My opinions are not clouded by profit incentives, as hardware
profit is a very small component of my business.  If my opinions get you
mad, I am sorry.  I frequently piss-off IBM, and they are free to terminate
my business partner relationships anytime they please.

I recognize that many customers (including you) are mad at IBM for levying
a premium for interactive processing power, but you need to understand what
your actions will ultimately cause.  IBM is in the business of making
money, and if IBM management doesn't make enough money, the IBM Board
(representing the stockholders) will fire them and get new management that
can make money.  This is a simple business proposition.

You are absolutely correct that I am putting a lot of faith in IBM, and IBM
will ultimately prevail.  (Their long-term track record for this is very
good.)  In the short term, they will continue to defy your product with
fixes that render your FAST400 impotent.  In the longer term, they will
re-engineer OS/400 so as to not be thwartable by products like yours.
Ultimately you will lose by one of two venues:

o     IBM will change the product architecturally to put you out of
business.
      or
o     If IBM fails (at thwarting your product), they will do away with the
premium for interactive.  I understand that this is what you want, however
this will have two consequences:
      1).   The one you will not like:  this will put you out of business.
      2).   The one that all AS/400 customers will not like, IBM will have
      to raise the price of systems high enough to keep the iSeries portion
      of the company viable, which will have a significant (upward) effect
      on the price of systems.

Your long term outlook is bleak.  In my opinion, any customer that
purchases your product might be buying a fast high, but ultimately they
will have to pay the piper.  IBM states that FAST400 will invalidate
customer contracts for OS/400 support and service, but in reality I suspect
that:
1).   If you have done any way near as good a job that you claim, IBM will
have a hard time detecting this.
2).   IBM states that they could sue customers,. and I agree that they have
that right, if they can figure out who's using it.  In reality I suspect
that they will not do this.

With reference to your last comment, I had not considered mentioning
FAST400 at Soundoff next COMMON, but now I will consider it.  You probably
wouldn't like what I have to say.

I trust that you had a Happy Fourth of July.

Regards

Al

Al Barsa, Jr.
Barsa Consulting Group, LLC

400>390

914-251-1234
914-251-9406 fax

http://www.barsaconsulting.com
http://www.taatool.com