Re: Help required to stop this company replacing their iSeries

Paul,

Don in DC

At 08:57 AM 6/30/2006 -0500, you wrote:

Well, for one, I've got a client who has been implementing an Oracle
system for 6.5 years and $14,000,000 now. At this point, the Oracle system
now contains the General Ledger and the Payroll applications. Everything
else is still running on a System i. They previously had a model 500, but
they finally gave in last summer and installed a 520. In the 6 years, the
staff went from 2 people to 11. Right now, nobody is responsible for the
520, except to change the backup tapes. They call me when they need help
with the 520.

The impetus for this was due to the fact that the CFO wanted to be able to
click an icon and receive spreadsheets. The former IT guy had neither the
right tools nor the ability to be able to do that. They have since
acquired the tools and some technical assistance, and now, the accounting
department can get what they want from the 520. Many people are now
questioning the decision and the expenditure to go to Oracle. The CFO is
pushing ahead because he doesn't want to be embarrasses for making the
wrong decision. Time will tell as to who lasts longer - the 520 or the
CFO.

I was at another client this week (also running a model 500), that is into
year 3 of an Oracle implementation. Same kind of reasoning in their
decision.

Side note: Last fall I happened to be on a plane, sitting next to the
personal assistant to the number 2 guy at Oracle. She flat out told me
that she wishes that Oracle would get out of the application software
business and stick to the database stuff. She said they use their own
software to run their business, and that their systems in the headquarters
office are always having problems.

Try this sales pitch: Tell them that with the right configuration, they
can run Oracle on a System i. By the way, don't look for much help from
IBM. They will try to get the services work in implementing the Oracle
stuff.
--

Paul Nelson
Arbor Solutions, Inc.
708-670-6978  Cell
pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx




"Raby, Steve" <agnictsr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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06/30/2006 03:47 AM
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Help required to stop this company replacing their iSeries






Hello Chaps and Chapesses,

I was on this list last year, and left the company I was with to go
contracting for GEAC, not knowing of the imminent take over. But I
digress, that is not the problem, I have recently taken a contract here in
the Netherlands at a place that has a fairly new iSeries(year or so old I
think) on 5.2. The system they have was written in house over the last
10-12 years in RPGIII and I am in the process of helping them bring it up
to date and I am trying to help that along further using what little I
know of RPGIV/ILE. The guy here is really enthusiastic to learn all he can
from me (in exchange he is teaching me ASP and HTML), the problem is now
they had a meeting here yesterday and horror of horrors they are talking
of replacing the iSeries with some other system, oracle or some such
rubbish, over the next couple of years.

So the help we require is how do we convince them not to replace the
iSeries? We need to build up a business case (I think money is the biggest
consideration for them) and any help anyone can give us would be most
appreciated. It is not that I am scared for my contract, there is enough
work to keep me going for a few years even if they do decide to change, I
just dont want to see another iSeries shop bite the dust.

I hope this is the right list to mention this on and my apologies if not.

Thanks in advance

Steve Raby
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