RE: WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO BRING NEW CUSTOMERS TO THE ISERIES

--- Booth Martin <Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Tom, IBM has already done that, and spent tons of
> time and money promoting
> it,  Very few students will even look at it.  It
> doesn't do games.  All
> those kids are thinking one thought:  "I'm going to
> write the next great
> game and get stinking rich." 

Actually, I've attended a few Object Oriented, Java,
Web, etc college classes lately, and I think that the
word of the iSeries just hasn't gotten out to anyone. 


I've queried instructors & students, many know what
the AS400 is, but most really don't know what the
iSeries is.  All they know is that the AS400 is the
machine they don't have to worry about because they're
learning the latest languages & technology, not COBOL
or RPG (what exactly is RPG?)  Most that I've talked
to aren't thinking about games as much as they are GUI
& Web applications, which of course the AS400 doesn't
do, or at least doesn't do well (as far as their
concerned)

IBM is relying on the iSeries diehards to get the
message out.  A problem that I see with this is that
most iSeries developers aren't utilizing the latest
technology available on the iSeries. I'm on the board
of the local user group here in KC and many shops are
still using RPG III, much less Websphere, Java,
apache, etc.  Therefore, Management is not going to
the iSeries developers for solutions.  They are going
to the PC group for solutions since they relate WEB &
GUI with PC's.  The PC developers need to be informed.

This is why I think that a TV campaign would be a good
way to go.  To attract some new innovative developers
to the iSeries.

Don McIntyre


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