Problems with moving IBM software form one machine to another -- MIDRANGE-L

This might be something to add to the ongoing saga of why the iSeries is 
losing market share.  Our company has been running on S/38 and AS/400 
since the S/38 was a puppy.  Recently the building that houses our AS/400 
went up for sale.  Instead of shipping our AS/400 to our Chicago office 
and facing a certain amount of downtime, we decided to buy an identical 
machine and have it installed there, then move the entire operation to 
that machine.  There is absolutely no difference between the two machines, 
each is a mod 620 with the same amount of memory, the same amount of DASD 
and the same processor.  We had a little trouble with one of our software 
vendors getting the business software relocated but it was fairly easily 
resolved.  The only piece of IBM software that we want to move there is 
Query/400.  Somehow they don't believe that we really own it.  We have 
been running everything on the "new" machine since early March but have 
only been able to run Query/400 due to obtaining temporary keys.  We have 
provided them with proof but they keep asking for more.  Somehow 
I don't understand why they can't look up our original order, invoices and 
any other documentation in their own computers.  At least I would assume 
that they have some kind of history in their computers.  This has not won 
them any points with our execs.

Earlier we had a problem with IBM because they had our name wrong on the 
billings for our hardware Maintenance agreements.  We had been part of a 
large corporation which sold off it's divisions to several different 
entities.  The corporate headquarters was sold to another company and 
completely changed the name.  We were no longer a part of that entity. 
Somehow they changed our company name to the new name of the company we 
never had anything to do with.  We were fortunate enough not to need to 
change our name and had never purchased anything from IBM under any other 
name but our own.  However, when I pointed out their error, the 
representative that I spoke to insisted that we had changed our company 
name, demanded to talk to my manager and demanded proof that we were who 
we said we were.  I finally told him I only wanted them to correct their 
error and that they could keep billing us under the wrong name if they 
really insisted on it.  This has also been a thorn in the side of our 
execs.

The two problems are probably part and parcel of the same thing but, 
instead of admitting that their records are incorrect and working with us 
they insist on making it difficult to do business with them.  Now the 
perception is "Why Bother?".

Many of the execs have a perception of the AS/400/iSeries as being 
obsolete technology.  We have been looking for new software to run the 
business and I have been trying to convince the powers that be that the 
AS/400 is the better way to go due to higher resistance to hackers, 
viruses, reduced need for multiple servers, etc.  It has been an uphill 
battle but IBM's arrogance on these points has served to knock the props 
out of whatever gains I was able to make.

Unfortunately, by the end of the year we will be running our business from 
a Microsoft platform.


Gary S. Lea 
Applications Group Manager 
Dexter Magnetic Technologies, Inc. 
Tel: 510-668-4645 
Fax: 510-668-5425 
glea@xxxxxxxxxxxxx