Re: Cust experiences with Payroll systems

Pat, 

You wrote:

The entire "express" line of 520's are aimed

at the "small" business. Why would they offer
a $11,000 - $50,000 box and NOT offer a lease ??? <<  

While I can't say for sure, knowing IBM and business, I'd say it's
because there is not enough profit margin it a lease for such a small
dollar amount.

Exactly where do you think any "new accounts" are

going to come from ???<<

Only from those governmental and business entities that find an
application they like and it just happens to run on an i5.   And because
most all software manufactures are porting their products to Windoz or
some flavor of UNIX, there will be less justification for businesses to
buy new i5 boxes unless they find a good deal with buying such a box so
they can partition it with i5/OS and run AIX or Linux in the LPARs. 
However, if p5s offer the same thing, then there is no need for an i5.  


You see, the i5 box is on the way out in not to many years when the
cost of the care and feeding of the applications thereon and the
personnel to administer them become more expensive than the same thing
on a Windoz or *NIX box.  Actually this is already happening.  This is
the fate of the OS,  UNLESS,  there is a SIGNIFICANT change how the i5
and i5/OS is viewed by the rest of IT and business.   Right now, the i5
is so esoteric and "legacy" and uses such "weird" languages like RPG,
CL,  with multiple "backdoors" to their RDBMS, the OS is just too "out
of it[out of the mainstream OS and language architectures]" according to
the rest of the IT world.    

If you start an account with the Iseries, it is

very unlikely that they will leave.<< 

That is increasingly becoming untrue; sad to say.

If you choose to ignore those accounts, somebody

else will pick them right up.(Windows/Unix/etc)<<

And they are.

In my opinion, that is the "exact" reason for the

decline of the box. IBM has been living off existing
accounts for several years and can continue for quite
some time.<<

I partially disagree; its mainly because the box is "weird" and legacy
compared to the rest of the IT world.   And because folks are moving
toward what is "standard" in the IT world and the i5/OS isn't, there is
little prospect for sufficient new business growth for IBM and VARs and
all this combined is responsible for the decline of the box.   And the
programming community that steadfastly held to keeping things esoteric
helped GREATLY.

No new small accounts will be the downfall

of the of the entire line eventually. <<

Of course, and sad to say but the entire i5/OS, AS/400,etc. community
is to blame for wanting to maintain their "weirdness" according to rest
of the non-i5/OS IT and business world.

Later,

Dave