Re: Is V7R1 catching on?

[Evan Harris <auctionitis@xxxxxxxxx>]

Again, I agree with you. If you are upgrading from 5.4 then go 7.1
unless there is a reason not to.

You keep talking about people who have dropped maintenance - I didn't
even mention that. I work for a BP and one of our services is
performing upgrades for companies that don't have the time or
experience to do it themselves. The cost is usually at least partly
justified by the functionality contained in the release.For example
back on 5.4 we talked about being able to save spool files and SQL
improvements.

I'm having a hard time providing these guys with something they can
take to their boss about why they should upgrade.

It's not about money saved by not having maintenance and the like is
is simply a question of what will we get for our effort ?

Keep in mind, most places even those with dedicated iSeries staff,
already have their staff fully allocated. Not many people have the
time to just work though the process of upgrading let alone do
upgrades simply for the sake of rehearsal so there is a real cost to
doing an upgrade - a cost that most managers want to see justified.


On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 2:51 AM,  <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> My comment was for those who were already going to either 6.1 or to 7.1
> that they should go to 7.1 and should at least give management the
> information necessary to make an informed decision as to why.
>
> Yes, object conversion is a pain.
> Yes, if you dropped maintenance on vendor packages as a shortsighted goal
> of saving money you will now look like the first syllable of assume.
> Yes, if you are current with maintenance you may have to slap a few
> vendors to get them to step up to the plate and get you something that
> will work on 6.1 or 7.1.
> Yes, your next scheduled downtime will last a bit longer as you perform
> the upgrade.
> However, if you are current with maintenance then the only cost involved
> is verifying that you are ready for the upgrade and performing the
> upgrade.  That's just labor and management will see that as zero cost as
> you are probably salary.
>
> Has there been packages that I've balked on paying maintenance?  Yes.
> However, I've removed them.
>
>
> Rob Berendt
> --
> Group Dekko
> Dept 1600
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