Scott
I totally feel your frustration. We had the same exact situation with
Trusted Link just a little over a year ago when we upgraded from a 170
to a 520. I threw quite a fuss. I demanded that they explain to me
what effort they were expending to deserve that fee, as well as their
ridiculous increase in the annual maintenance fee. Of course, the only
reason they could give me was that their software would perform much
better on the new machine. Duh - that's why we bought it! And that's
why we paid IBM for the hardware.
Long story short, after complaining quite a bit, we were able to come to
a compromise with Inovis.
I know they need to make money, but this is just bad business. When you
buy a car that gets better gas mileage, the gas station doesn't charge
you more per gallon than your old car, do they? I don't know why a
software company thinks they can do essentially the same thing.
Complain loud and hard, and maybe they'll "cut you a break" (sounds
ridiculous just saying it).
Or better yet, get rid of their software altogether, like you're
thinking.
Good luck!
Bob Cagle
IT Manager
Lynk, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[
mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Klement
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 6:46 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: EDI and Inovis from Library Data
I'm finding myself REALLY interested in this thread. My company has
been using Inovis' software for years, but now we're in the process of
upgrading our system from a 270 to a 520.
The TrustedLink EDI software was around $10k when we originally
purchased it from Premenos, and we've faithfully paid for maintenance on
the product. However, just to transfer the license from the 270 to the
520 they want $15k!!
This is an absolutely absurd price in my mind. This 520 is only 600 CPW,
it's the smallest machine IBM makes. (As was the 270 in it's day).
They are the same software tier, but of course, Inovis doesn't care what
the software tier is, they only care about the CPW. To me, the notion
that it costs more to transfer a license for software that processes
10-15 orders a day than it does to buy a new machine, or to buy the
original software in the first place... it just boggles the mind.
Anyway, my point is -- if I can simply write the EDI data to a stream
file and FTP it, that would be AWESOME! Not only would it save me
money, but I could make the whole process much more efficient.
Can anyone give me more info about what's involved in this? You just
write the EDI formatted data to the IFS (I already know how to do that)
and FTP it and your done? (Could it be that simple?) I assume the VAN
requires some sort of contract?
midrange.com
