RE: SWMA Costs

At an employer many years ago, they absolutely HATED software maintenance with a passion - "It's just an annuity for vendors!".

At one point, I managed to talk them into a 3-year agreement for Infinium payroll that gave us a really good discount. I think the original cost was about $35k/year (this was in the mid 2000's). All was great until renewal came up for year 4. Then, the <stuff> hit the fan as there were 3 years of increases rolled into that new rate - on top of our pre-paid discount from the original deal.

I had warned them of that and pointed out the original savings. Almost didn't get it renewed until our VP of Accounting/Payroll and I pointed out the issues of possibly not making payroll if there were an issue.

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Brad Stone
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2023 11:54 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: SWMA Costs

On Wed, May 17, 2023 at 1:18 PM Rob Berendt <robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Brad is underplaying the inflation.

Sorry if I came across that way. The inflation, to be blunt, is
ridiculous. Just didn't want to get "political".

More and more people are locking into 3 year prices because of inflation.
A savings of 2% turned out to be a lot more.
If he would have locked in at the 700/year price with a 2% discount that
would have been 686/year or $2,058 for 3 years.
While (700+770+890) = $2,360. (2360 - 2058)/(2360) is a 13% discount. And
no discussion with management every year about a budget change..
OTOH there's the whole financing of cash flow...

When did they offer this 2%? 2020? I don't remember ever being told about
it. But, I did get the letter saying that they were raising prices because
of inflation. I think I shared it with you, Rob. After reading this,
though, maybe you meant I was underplaying the 2% discount vs inflation?
Or I could see how maybe both. Then again, I have a hard enough time
getting an invoice each year from IBM for SW/HWMA.. It's like pulling teeth.

Now, what about if you go off the platform? Refund for the years you won't
use? Probably not.

What if you swap hardware? Does it carry over? Hard to say for sure.
I'd guess some sort of extra fee if it does that kills the 2%.

What about after the 3 years is up? Will they sneak in some sort of other
fee for those that took "advantage" of the 2% for the next payments?

I was just looking at the downsides of paying ahead of time... No one has
a crystal ball, but these days I think it's easy to see where things are
going. Pay now or pay later.

Maybe we'll get a bigger discount in the future if we pay in CBDC.
(*running and hiding*).

On Wed, May 17, 2023 at 1:04 PM Buzz Fenner via MIDRANGE-L <
midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm looking at two proposals for hardware/SWMA support; one for one year
and another for 3-year. The 3-year is a 2% savings which isn't quite what
we used to save, but it would lock in the cost over 3 years.

My question is for those of you who pay annually, have you seen any
noticeable year-over-year rise in the support contract cost?

--
Buzz Fenner, Information Systems Administrator
+1 (870) 930.3374 bfenner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:

bfenner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

City Water and Light of Jonesboro
Office: +1 (870) 935.5581 / Fax: +1 (870) 930.3301
Physical: 400 East Monroe Ave., Jonesboro, AR 72401
Mailing: PO Box 1289, Jonesboro, AR 72403-1289

This e-mail message may contain confidential or legally privileged
information and is intended only for the use of the intended

recipient(s).

Any unauthorized disclosure, dissemination, distribution, copying or the
taking of any action in reliance on the information herein is prohibited.
E-mails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free as they
can be intercepted, amended, or contain viruses. Anyone who communicates
with us by e-mail is deemed to have accepted these risks. City Water and
Light of Jonesboro is not responsible for errors or omissions in this
message and denies any responsibility for any damage arising from the use
of e-mail. Any opinion and other statement contained in this message and
any attachment are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
represent those of the company.



________________________________

This electronic mail transmission may contain confidential or privileged
information. If you believe that you have received this message in error,
please notify the sender by reply transmission and delete the message
without copying or disclosing it.
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing

list

To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related questions.