To make a long story short, I picked up a client in Tulsa out of the blue in
January of 2001 or 2002. They had been informed by their software vendor
that they needed to do an OS upgrade in order to install that year's W2
changes for payroll. They had bought their package and machine from a
company in Phoenix. That vendor was also administering their IBM maintenance
contracts, and hadn't bothered to keep them current. V4R5 was current at
that time, and they had been left at V3R6 or 7.
I borrowed the CD's I needed from Al Barsa, and spent a 40 hour weekend
getting them current. During that time, I got to meet the owner of the
company. We hit it off well, as my dad had been in the construction
business, and he knew of my dad.
They had just embarked on a trip down the Oracle Black Hole, and he was
already grumbling about the cost of making a switch since they had a
perfectly good system running on their Rochester platform. He had given in
to the pleas of his young CFO and agreed that if the CFO couldn't get Excel
spreadsheets from the existing software, there just might be an issue.
At any rate, I kidded him a little that the project would go years and big
bucks over budget. All this time, they still needed to process payroll
through both the Oracle system and their IBM system, because Oracle couldn't
handle construction cost accounting. Oracle finally gave up and offered them
the JD Edwards package for free. When the IT director asked me if I thought
that to be a good idea, I asked him if he wanted to spend another couple
million bucks on implementation and conversion.
Three years ago, he called me and asked me to come to Tulsa for the day. I
told him I would book a flight. He said to forget that idea, because he was
in Houston and would pick me up at our local airport (nice Gulfstream jet).
When we got to his office in Tulsa, we walked into the Oracle server portion
of the data center. He looked at me and told me he should have listened to
me ten years previously, and pulled the switch on the wall for those
multiple servers. As the room got quiet, I asked him about that CFO. He
said, "Don't worry about what he'll think. I fired him last week."
Then he bought me lunch and took me to the airport, where he apologized for
not being able to give me a ride back to San Marcos, but handed me a first
class ticket to Austin. For the inconvenience of having my wife come to get
me, he told me to send him a bill for a week's worth of my time. He still
nags me about never having billed him. I keep telling him the look on the
faces of the Oracle consultants when he pulled the plug was more than worth
it.
:-))
Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alan Cassidy
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 7:25 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?
Right now is a real good time, Paul! Right now!
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Nelson
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 6:05 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?
Remind me some time to tell about the owner of one of my clients flying me
to Tulsa to watch him kill the power supply to his Oracle server room.
Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Anderson, Kurt
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 4:57 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?
Turning the table on that conversation is doable.
Make your own company understand and value the power of the IBM i. It's
really an awareness thing. Our own CEOs could very well be the person
sitting over cocktails talking about their own machine and system. Even if
the machine isn't new, it's not like it's sitting idle with no development,
right? I'm sure there are some CEOs who are keen on the latest and
greatest, but most CEOs are also keen on ROI.
Sure, easier said than done, but it can be done.
-Kurt
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul Nelson
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 4:32 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?
<< I would be equally wary of jumping to the newest, shiniest thing.>>
In my travels over the last nearly 40 years in the business, I have
frequently encountered the "Me too" denizens of upper management.
This usually entails decisions made by the MBAM (management by airline
magazine) method, the "conversation the boss had with another boss over
cocktails in the first class section of an airplane" method, or (shudder)
"My fraternity brother has this system, so we need one too" method.
Been there, seen it.
Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 512-392-2577
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Yeung
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 4:19 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Where can I find a list of current IBM i companies?
On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 4:11 PM, Stone, Joel <Joel.Stone@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
No matter how good or bad the iseries may be, the city gov would
probably be best served with a platform that is running many other
city government organizations.
I believe many other cities still do use the i.
With iseries, you are re-inventing the wheel for each of these [other
systems that must be integrated] and it is enormously expensive. With
a platform that is used by thousands of other cities, it is simply a
matter of following a setup procedure from the
vendor/county/state/fed.
I agree with the premise that reinventing the wheel is expensive, but you
haven't provided any evidence that sticking with the i necessarily entails
reinventing the wheel for things. You also haven't provided evidence that
going to some other platform doesn't *also* entail reinventing the wheel for
things.
They are and should be concerned with what other CITIES are running,
which is why they want to drop iseries (as stated by you, other cities
apparently have moved off iseries as heard at city leadership
conferences).
I think it does make sense for a city to be more concerned with other cities
than with businesses. Mike never said they (the IT group he works for) know
for sure what the upper management knows or has heard; it was just a working
theory. I would not be surprised if plenty of cities do think of the i as
outdated, and some have surely migrated away from it. I also would not be
surprised if (as Mike was
wondering) some cities' upper management *think* they have migrated, but
haven't really. (For example, if a city now has a browser interface to some
important functions that they used to do on green screens, it could well be
that they still have their i.)
So if you want to keep working for the city and NOT be grouped with
the legacy platform, then EMBRACE the search for the new system and be
a cheerleader for it.
Well, this comment has value to the extent that it attempts to counter
"unjustified" loyalty or attachment to existing systems. I would be equally
wary of jumping to the newest, shiniest thing.
The thing to embrace is a sincere examination of the situation. That is, be
open. Be rational. Be objective. There are definitely advantages to
platforms other than the i. There are advantages to the i. There are
advantages to staying with what you have (be it i or something else). Are
the advantages of a new system big enough to justify the cost of changing to
it? In most cases, it's impossible to have perfect knowledge of all these
things, but at least you can strive to avoid being closed-minded.
John
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