Re: Does this tick you off?

I don't know your situation, but recently I lost several clients involved
with a single software pkg, mostly because the software co refused
to give the customers what they wanted/needed. Cust now moving off the i.
If Excel is the interface they are comfortable with and perhaps it gives them the flexibility needed, can you spec and deliver something in that interface from the i? There are lots of ways to read/write .xls files.
Scheduling is a lot of "what if".
It is extremely frustrating to see business units going outside, but it happens
and internal IT ends up either taking it, or competing with the vendors.
Jim Franz

----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Cavaiani" <dcavaiani@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 10:47 AM
Subject: RE: Does this tick you off?

Jim, you know what - that's just what the problem is:

These users are not able to "put down on paper and/or verbalize" their
needs to the point where I would then be able to analyze and design an
integrated system which would meet "THOSE NEEDS".

So, it seems like to me that the users are going out to these vendors to
ask them how to run their business, and of course, these vendors have no
idea how our business runs or should be run. But, of course, they do
have some fancy looking, Windows or Browser based, colorful apps with
which they will wow these users.

How many times will this approach actually result in satisfying what the
customer really needed in the first place??

I sit here ready with my LANSA and Net.Data with my "mouth dripping" to
get into this type of project. I have done all I can to get their
attention, including letting the CEO know how I feel. In this case,
there is a Manufacturing Engineer who heads the project, and he has
shared with me that every project he has worked on or been involved in
in the past 20 years has been fully implemented using EXCEL
spreadsheets! That is a big part of his job, and he loves doing it. It
is a different culture out there now.

Don



-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Franz
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 9:30 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Does this tick you off?

Does a native or client server app exist for the i that fulfills the
user requirements?
jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Cavaiani" <dcavaiani@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 10:21 AM
Subject: Does this tick you off?

We have some users who have gone looking for some outside Windows
software which does scheduling for a Manufacturing plant.

I know what will happen if they go this route - I will spend much

"boring"

time building BPCS interfaces to and from this package, and our
company may just end up wasting a lot of cash - as we request
modifications to fit our specific needs.

Ticks me off - they bring in these vendors and are wowed by "drag and
drop" interfaces! Hard to get across to them how little that
interface really has to do with the business logic, formulas and
databases which must be referenced behind the scenes to build
effective integrated systems!

That company is Tuppas Software. If anyone knows anything about them,

please email me offline.

Thanks,
Don C.

Don F. Cavaiani
IT Manager
Amerequip Corp.
920-894-7063

"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the
credit." Harry S. Truman



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