Re: Marketing the platform was: System i - Mentioned twice in SD Times

Lukas,

One of the things I advocate to software vendors, and to my prospective
clients, is that the hardware is not the key driver of the sale. First,
determine the application software that meets the needs of the company, then
determine from that, the hardware to run it.

I worked for a BI software vendor who has the right idea. They sell the
solution first, then determine the database and hardware based on several
criteria. This, I think, is the correct approach.

However, now I work for an application ISV and things are different. Our
applications are leading in our industry, and our database is now SQL. But,
when we come to compete for a sale, we are accused of running on an AS/400,
and thus, we are old and outdated. One vendor tells a prospect that they
MUST have Windows, and even when we say the hardware should not drive the
sale, it makes little difference. We have seen so many RFPs that have been
designed by consultants that say "what version of a Windows database are you
using?" and "will your system work when we upgrade Windows". When we finally
can run a demo, and the user can see that the GUI front end is modern and
seems to be Windows, that we can prove the point of hardware not being a key
driver.

So, we fight the battle against the rumor that AS/400 is old, and wish that
more of the community would stop using the name with the stigma attached, so
that ignorant consultants who write RFPs would have no ammunition to shoot
at us.

Trevor


On 2/22/08 7:07 PM, "Lukas Beeler" <lukas.beeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 12:29 AM, John Earl <john.earl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"My personal suggestion is to use i5/OS in your title. Somewhere on the
page, you can define the audience. An example:"
I understand your logic here - but history has proven it to be flawed.
A business manager that thinks he owns an AS/400 that runs OS/400 will
not often get past the cover page of a brochure that says i5/OS. We've

As an ERP ISV, we just switched to actually selling a solution to the
customer, not i5/OS or the System i.

In the end, what the customers want is a solution to whatever business
problem they're facing right now. They do not want i5/OS, System i,
AS/400, Windows 2000, Mac OS X or anything like that: they want a
solution.

The technical details of that solution aren't unimportant, but they're
not the main selling point. All the customer has to know is that they
have a native Windows and/or Java Client they can use. If they want to
know more, they can read the technical details.

Of course it is another matter when you're dealing with existing
customers. Some of them are technical, but stuck back in the 80ies
with their 5250 sessions. Educating those customers is hard, and
sometimes even impossible.

Those that aren't technical are much easier to handle. Just tell them
that the same software package they're using right now runs on a more
modern System and that the transition is exceptionally easy. Works
well when migrating customers off our old 5250 based solution
(discontinued in 2001 or so) to the current one.

I just now had a look at your signature, and it appears that you're
working for an i5/OS tool vendor. Well, that's a completely different
minefield of marketing, and my advice probably doesn't help you at
all.