RE: Another one bites the dust -- MIDRANGE-L

In other words, while vendors say they're in the business of selling
solutions, what they mean is they're trying to solve their revenue
problems v. our business problems.

We all hate the car analogy, but Toyota has become both huge and hugely
profitable by making cars that are more reliable than average and
selling them at a moderate price premium over the competition.  They
don't seem too concerned about parts profit after-the-sale or on
marketing customers to death to move to new cars every couple of years;
they're growing and profiting by delivering a very good product at a
reasonable price.  Their reputation is basically bulletproof cars that
don't need replacing as often as other brands.  Now, if you replace
"cars" with "systems" and "parts profit" with "IT services", what would
you replace "Toyota" with?


John A. Jones, CISSP
Americas Information Security Officer
Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc.
V: +1-630-455-2787 F: +1-312-601-1782
john.jones@xxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Ryan
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 5:56 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Another one bites the dust

Probably because IBM, SAP, and consulting companies make more money when
it's not on i5. License dollars and services dollars is where it's at.
Selling h/w and s/w itself isn't the continuing revenue stream that you
can get from services. Just think, if some consulting business had three
Oracle DBAs in that company every day...day after day...billing away,
they could make a ton of money. Now suppose that that company moves to
i5. The contract Oracle DBAs go away. And now you've got some old guy
(like me) that can manage the whole thing. That's lots of dollars that
aren't being spent anymore. Great for the customer, bad for the services
company.

And there are some great consulting companies - like the ones on this
list - that would advocate the best solution for the customer. But...not
all consulting companies are that interested in their customer's
welfare. And, not all consulting companies go outside their comfort
zone. If they have Oracle people on staff, they pitch an Oracle
solution. When your only tool is a hammer, all your problems look like
nails. Such is business...

On 12/12/06, Hauser, Birgitta <Birgitta.Hauser@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Hi,

I just recently talked with someone, whose company moved to iSeries, 
running SAP on it. Before they run SAP with an Oracle Database. He 
said, half a day Oracle DBAs did nothing else than readjusting table 
spaces. Since they run SAP on the iSeries no intervention to the 
database is necessary anymore.
His comment was: "Working with SAP on an iSeries is a dream!"

I know it won't help, but sometimes I wonder why such stories get not 
published.

Birgitta

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Cassidy, Alan
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 23:56
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Another one bites the dust


        ==> I was "on the bench" 2005 a few months, "not enough 
programmers"
for the IBM midrange/System i just sounds funny...

...If they offered equivalent pay for their System i programming 
needs, from what I've heard the Oracle DBAs and application "tweakers"

are paid, they could get all the experience they want for programming 
anything they want on the the System i. And they won't go years and 
years past deadline and millions over budget like Oracle conversions.

...Last place I was at they were replacing the company's systems with 
Oracle. German parent company had decreed this change worldwide. They 
had a couple of dozen guys in Atlanta working full-time on just that 
and they were already a year into it.

Met an Oracle saleman on my trip to Redwood City for my daughter's 
wedding.
He told me that the JDE World shops were stubborn and they just 
couldn't pry them off the platform. Haha. I think it's new IT 
directors and managers that just don't know what they're losing that 
make these decisions. And I think we are going to be responsible for 
our own future to get the word out, partners, programmers, users that 
know..

I think it's okay to bring these things up again each occasion like 
this to keep it fresh in our minds and to help keep a growing "mind 
share" here.
(A
hopeful "trickle up" theory :) ...)

--Alan

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