Re: HASB mulls new computer system

On 3/29/06, Pete Helgren <Pete@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Our sales/marketing guy emailed me last night with a copy of what he is
> sending to the board members.  They currently aren't a customer of
> ours.  We have pitched our solution to them several times which is:
>
> 1. Continue with the existing software on a new i5 (lower total TCO).
> 2. Switch to us for maintenance and support on the application.
> 3. Become a member of our open source community which gives them some
> immediate enhancements to the product, most of them new GUI (HTML)
> interfaces to existing data.
>
> Our challenge is that we don't have a complete replacement for their
> existing software, yet.  The beauty of our approach is that we can
> continue to support them with their existing 5250 based applications
> while releasing new functionality.  We use the same database so whether
> our program updates the data or the original 5250 application updates
> the data, it still resides in the same database.
>
> Unfortunately we don't hear of these folks until the damage is already
> done (again, they aren't customers of ours, we prospect for them but
> sometime finding them is difficult).  Getting them to upgrade to an i5
> is sometimes like pushing water uphill.  They already see the i5 as just
> an "newer" AS/400.  They don't see it as the wonderfully flexible,
> powerful box that it is.
>
> We are on this.  It's too bad that we don't engage these folks before
> they already have made some faulty assumptions.

A lot of good info Pete.

As I read your posts the customer wants an application which is access
thru the browser.  Putting MSFT to the side, the xSeries or p5 based
solution has an IBM starting price of $5K to $10K.  For similar
performance on the i5, that is 3000 CPW, the starting price is $22K+. 
Why pay the extra $15K? For green screen compatibility that the
customer can do without?

The villain here is not the uninformed customer.  It is IBM pricing of the i5.

http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh032706-story01.html

"... Like many people in the OS/400 community, if I have an argument
at all, it is almost never with IBM's Rochester labs, ....., but
rather with IBM's Somers offices, where the marketing and sales plans
are hatched and where the pricing and packaging decisions are made.
... Getting Somers to listen is hard, since the marketeers aim to make
as much money in the shortest term with the least possible amount
effort. They do this because that's what marketeers at public
companies do. ..."

-Steve