RE: Microsoft goes after the iSeries

Phillip,

My point was not necessarily that ASNA made any misrepresentations but I
believe there are plenty associated to your partners in the Midrange
Alliance.  Having said that, opinions are opinions and anyone can attempt
to prove a point by manipulating numbers to their benefit.  It may be more
my opinion as opposed to fact.  I realize this but I for one am getting
very tired by a lot of questionable tactics and incorrect representations.
Not calling a spade a spade here has actually caused more problems than I
could have realized.  There are a few hardware and software vendors that
permanently persona non grata with me due to their sales and marketing
tactics.


I've spoken to someone from ASNA on the subject and voiced the same
concerns.  I'll include my points from an email I sent in.

"To whom it may concern:
I find your association with the Midrange Alliance to be extremely
troubling.
While there are certain advantages with the ASNA product set I do find a
number
of statements, positions, and documents with the Alliance to be misleading
and
misrepresentative.  Certain components of the enhancement and
transformation
maps are being misrepresented.  While this may not be the fault of ASNA, by
default your widely acclaimed association makes ASNA culpable for any
statement
made by the Alliance.  Without proper clarification from ASNA I will find
it
hard to ever do business with ASNA in the future."

I'm all for ASNA ensuring that there are multiple environments for iSeries
developers to work with and I fully understand the desire to make sure that
IBM's development map is not the only one that exists.  We hounded IBM for
years to give us something and they did.  For whatever reason your product
set is pretty much excluded from that.  For some reason your company has
chosen the Midrange Alliance to help accomplish generating an alternative
approach.  I personally find it a disconcerting approach.  And I have
larger concerns with the alliance.  The extent of the alliance goes well
beyond a development roadmap.  I've always had a high respect for your
company but this alliance and who you have partnered with (directly or
indirectly) creates problems for me.  I'm not opposed to good competition
but my position is that your company should measure it's interest in the
alliance based on a number of factors.  If alienating certain customers is
what you want to do I think you may well on the road to doing that -
deserved or not.

I'm not going to hash out all of the specific concerns I have within the
Alliance over this venue.  At least it is in the nontechnical discussion
area but I'm not sure I can do much without really disparaging a lot of
companies.  I happen to think they deserve it, I think their tactics are
misleading and sophomoric.  But opinions are opinions and I try my best to
truly limit my flames.  Read through the information provided by the other
members of the alliance....I think you can realize most of them on your
own.

Possibly I'm being a bit hard on ASNA but I think that is the risk your
company took by forming this alliance.

Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN  47302
(765)741-7696
(765)741-7012 f
(800)428-8642

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just"  Abraham Lincoln






                                                                           
             Phillip Hinojosa                                              
             <phillip.hinojosa                                             
             @asna.com>                                                 To 
                                       Non-Technical Discussion about the  
             01/12/2005 05:14          AS400 / iSeries                     
             PM                        <midrange-nontech@xxxxxxxxxxxx>     
                                                                        cc 
                                                                           
             Please respond to                                     Subject 
               Non-Technical           RE: Microsoft goes after the        
             Discussion about          iSeries                             
                the AS400 /                                                
                  iSeries                                                  
             <midrange-nontech                                             
              @midrange.com>                                               
                                                                           
                                                                           



"I think I'll extend my boycott of California Software products to ASNA.
While I'm all for alternative programming environments I struggle with a
number of inaccurate statements being made within the Midrange
Alliance."

Hello All,
I work for ASNA.  My views are not shared nor approved by ASNA. That
being said, this is the most exciting time in the history of an RPG
developer. Some of you may think that's debatable but I have proof.

Anyway, I don't understand which specific statements from ASNA caused
you to boycott us but I think it's unfair that the public may formulate
a negative opinion about ASNA.

Any detail would be appreciated.

Take care,
Phillip

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