Re: Staying current on releases? (was: Are there any System i sites on the Internet that offer accounts?)

Jeff Young wrote:

For programmers, the new cool things are indeed a good reason to upgrade, but for the C level people, if the current system is working without any problems and the needs of the business do not require anything beyond what the current system provides, there is no incentive to them to upgrade just for its own sake.

This is very true, but it _can_ be manipulated under some circumstances.

Way back in approx 1985, I was working a contract for a City south of here. State auditors happened to be there for the periodic audits at the same time. Also at that time, I just happened to be evaluating a brand new product for the S/38 -- SEQUEL (from ASC -- Help/Systems).

The City Manager's office was asking for new reports of all kinds of stuff to give to the auditors and SEQUEL made a major difference. (And it was nowhere near as capable as what the product has since evolved into.)

The DP Manager was easily convinced to request funding to buy a license. IIRC, the cost was $1200. But that was deemed too expensive by whomever above denied the request.

A day or so after the denial, a bunch of new requests for new reports came down and I sent back a "two weeks" estimate on how long it would be to fulfill the requests. A City Manager rep came down to find out why all of a sudden ad hoc reports where two weeks out when they'd been returned the next morning for the previous few weeks.

I said "We've been using an eval copy of a nice product. The eval is up and request for purchase was denied. Now I have to create everything."

Approval for license purchase took less than two full days to come back.

C-level and other execs _can_ be swayed. They just need to know how _they_ will be affected.

Tom Liotta