I think Larry isn't asking for people to get this without paying. He is saying it is OK to charge a little when they are getting back on maintenance, but don't charge the customer such a penalty that they don't come back. Larry and I were discussing this last week, and he was saying the customer would have paid 1 year back and 2 years forward. That is 3 years of maintenance (and possibly more going forward) that the stupid ISV wouldn't take. Penny wise and dollar foolish if you ask me on the ISV side. I agree, they shouldn't come back for free, as does Larry. I think sometimes companies fall on bad luck as well, and drop maintenance to save money and recover the business. When they come back, and want to get back on maintenance, make the pay a back charge, but don't make it more than they paid for the product initially.
I don't think we are disagreeing on this.
Pete
Pete Massiello
iTech Solutions
http://www.itechsol.com
http://www.iInTheCloud.com
Office: 203-744-7854
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rob Berendt
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 8:21 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Two good articles to read
Thank you Pete. I think the credit goes to Alex Woodie though.
I understand Larry's frustration. We are an Infor customer. Actually the 3rd they ever had and the oldest still running it. The only problem I have with Larry's article is that we've been faithfully paying maintenance all this time. Why should our payments be used to subsidize those who haven't been paying maintenance?
I understand the frustration to people like you, Larry, Jim, etc who get their bacon from peddling upgrades and losing sales because of this issue.
However these people were the ones being pennywise and pound foolish and dropped maintenance. And will probably do so again.
I am willing to say it's not a "line in the sand" kind of issue though.
Perhaps a little back maintenance or resubscription fee followed by a three year maintenance contract or some such thing.
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Pete Massiello - ML <pmassiello-ml@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx)"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 02/01/2017 07:57 AM
Subject: Two good articles to read
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
I saw two good articles this morning in IT jungle, by long time
Midrange-L'ers.
Larry Bolhuis on customers being raked over the coals on vendor charges
for software migration (going to new hardware):
https://www.itjungle.com/2017/02/01/see-something-say-something/
Rob Berendt on Lack of Ciphers on the old IBM i 7.1 operating system:
https://www.itjungle.com/2017/02/01/lack-ciphers-ibm-7-1-raises-concern/
Good points in both articles, and I think IBM i 7.1 is ready to be
retired. Why hasn't IBM come out with an End of regular Support for 7.1?
This is a 6 year old operating system. IBM should have come out with this
last fall, and provided 18 months then. If they give the normal 18
months, and made the announcement today then it will still be supported in
the late summer of 2018. Come on, we need to get people to the latest
release (7.2 or 7.3), but off of 7.1 now (certainly off of V5R4 and 6.1 as
well). You might not believe this, but we are still getting clients
contacting us to upgrade them from V5R4. We had 2 just in the last 7 days
!!!
How do you combat the saying when people say "That AS/400 is old", well
when you are on V5R4, 6.1, or 7.1 those releases of IBM i are old. Move
up and see all the new stuff that IBM Rochester has been putting into the
new releases.
Great articles to both Rob and Larry.
Pete
Pete Massiello
iTech Solutions
http://www.itechsol.com<
http://www.itechsol.com/>
http://www.iInTheCloud.com<
http://www.iinthecloud.com/>
Office: 203-744-7854
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midrange.com
