RE: Marketing question about AS/400 name

I disagree.

We have a few new customers that have bought a then-called iSeries or an eServer i5.

They still call it an AS/400 (not all though, see below)

Why? Because many of our employees call it that way, IBM technicians call it that way, IBM sales call it that way.
And don't forget that OS/400 and AS/400 are still sprinkled throughout i5/OS V5R4M0.

Add more confusion through the software package called "iSeries Access", which is still called that way at release V5R4M0.

Add the fact that coming to a customers site and asking "Where is your System i", which is met with a blank response - but asking "Where is your AS/400" usually gives you what you're looking for. And i can't really imagine a way explaining this to a customer that is not overly complicated and condescending.

A few other customers chose another way entirely - they just call it the "DIAS-Server" (DIAS is the name of our software package). That one works nicely and will probably survive all further rebranding attempts.


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Trevor Perry
Sent: Thu 04.10.2007 22:24
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Marketing question about AS/400 name

One more thought.

While our current market knows what an AS/400 is, and has a strong heritage
of AS/400, there are some customers who never knew it was an AS/400. They
may have bought their first server when it was an iSeries, and know it by no
other name. In a couple of years, there will be more customers who have
purchased a System i, and know it by no other name. All of us, I believe,
want this to happen - so the platform will remain viable and alive and have
a future.

Given this new population, should we try and educate them that they really
have an AS/400?