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  2. MIDRANGE-L
  3. November 2003

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

Booth Martin wrote:
What ever happened to Tom Peters? Remember him? The guru of quality? His
position was that top quaility would win out. Empirical evidence would prove
him to be sadly wrong whether one looks at Wal-Mart or Microsoft.
In any event my point is that companies are learning that quality is of no
consequence. With software the rule has become "Get it out there. If it
catches on then you can fix it." Given that, how can we sell the iSeries
with application packages? The iSeries is for those that want control of
their own applications and don't like being held hostage to the moving
targets of Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun. The iSeries is a niche machine. Keep it a niche machine and go after the
niche market that can afford and appreciate the qualities of the platform.
Talk up the control issue ("move at your speed, not theirs". "upgrade on
your timetable, not theirs", "who's problems are your tech people working on
today, yours or Microsoft's?", "Tired of soaring user license and unneeded
upgrade fees?"


Back in the 1980's, we in the Toronto Lab had to endure a number of management fads, one of which was specifically directed at "Quality". We all had to attend education sessions where the lesson was "Quality is meeting requirements". Most of us objected to that cliche by pointing out that some products have the characteristic "quality" and others not. For example, a Mercedes Benz car has quality, but not a Dodge. (No flames please!)

But the instructors did have a point, and perhaps "quality" was the wrong term in the lessons. That is, if a Dodge meets your requirements, then why buy the Mercedes? The key point in any purchase is not so much "quality" but rather "value".

Of course, one consequence of the statement "Quality is meeting requirements" is that the onus is placed on those defining the requirements. But ultimately, for any business, you have to look for the best /value/ that meets your requirements. If it's an application that runs on an iSeries, then great! But if your needs are best met by an application that runs on some other machine (like a xSeries, pSeries, or zSeries), that's what you have to go for. That's the way business runs.

Cheers! Hans



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