David,
I agree with you 100% that there is a strong connection to the name "AS/400"
and our platform. It is what many people know it by. It is what many people
call it. However, there are a lot of people who call it iSeries. And soon,
there will be a lot of people who call it an i5. And, there are already a
LOT of people who call it System i - the actual brand name.
In any circumstance, IBM calls it System i. And they are not changing it
back. Listen to all the IBMers who are directing this platform, and you will
hear System i all the time. Even Frank Soltis has begun that name
transition!
While we need to sort out ways to find all the information about the System
i (er, SystemiPortal.com? midrange.com?) without having to type all
variations of the name, we also need to understand that the family of
servers on which we work are branded System i. Recruiters will be the last
to change, since they are being told by our community that we work on
AS/400s. They don't need to be smart about the industry, they just have to
know the terms - including "subfile programming".
And while few people know what a System i may be (yet), that gives us the
opportunity to sell the concept. That is a marketing opportunity we all
should take! And since so many people know what an AS/400 is, there is our
lead in to explain the current state of branding. With a more positive
approach, and less complaining about the name we have been given (by other
people, of course) :-), we can change the world. I don't think it is a name
thing, but a comfort zone thing - and that is not a reason to sit on our
arse and keep repeating "AS/400" over and over!!
While we did not want IBM to rebrand, and while they chose a name we did not
have influence over, we now HAVE a brand. If every time someone uttered
"AS/400", and one of our community responded with - "our AS/400 grew up - it
is now a System i - the best server on the planet", then this whole topic
would be moot. What sucks is that change is difficult for most people, and
especially so for programmers who are still writing code the same way as
they did 15-20 years ago.
If you can modernize your vernacular, you will appear to be modern on your
resume. Don't discount your AS/400 heritage, but embrace it, and bring it
into the 21st century brand name that we have been ...er... well.. given!
:-)
Trevor
On 6/6/07 3:42 PM, "David Gibbs" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Trevor Perry wrote:
Everyone seems to think the marketing is for the CURRENT users of the
AS/400. So we ~must~ keep calling it an AS/400.
However, I think marketing should be to NEW and PROSPECTIVE users of the
System i.
Trevor ... that's the point.
How many of the prospective customers KNOW about the System i? It's a
new name. It has no history. Nobody has experience with it.
If I 'rebranded' midrange.com to be 'system-i-lists.com', and created a
new PHP-SYSTEM-I list, do you think many people would subscribe to it?
IMO, probably not ... because people have heard of midrange.com through
co-workers, trade publications, COMMON, etc. They haven't heard of
system-i-lists.com.
It's a moot point ... but if the name were iSeries ... IBM could have
created the iSeries Power5 ... a new version of an existing (and known)
brand. And then they could have marketed all the new and cool features
of the iSeries Power5.
IMO, rebranding just makes the prospective customers think that IBM
didn't have confidence in the old name.
david
midrange.com
