"Encouraging" customers to upgrade was: I need Feature Card 2617 for old Model 500

Greetings:

The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer 
- as long as the vendor cashes the check. If a software vendor can make 
money supporting customers who are on downlevel hardware, then that is 
what should be done; otherwise not. This assumes that "make money" takes 
into account:
        - opportunity costs for resources used
        - customer good will for future purchases
        - the ethics of putting a customer at *actual* risk if a hardware 
failure occurs

It may be ironic, but the legendary reliability of the i/400 OS/hardware 
combination actually suggests that the *actual* risk of not upgrading is 
significantly lower than for other platforms.

Note that there is normally extremely little *actual* risk, often none at 
all, that arises from "missing out on new features". This may be heresy in 
some parts of our industry, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. Of 
course, it doesn't mean there isn't value to new features, either. And 
with that we return to the customer, whose prerogative it is to decide 
whether the value received exceeds the value paid.

Darrell

Darrell A. Martin  -  630-754-2187
Manager, Computer Operations
dmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



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