Re: Geac Communication - Reply -- SYSTEM21

I am rebroadcasting this memo in two pieces due to a request from the list
administrator...
Apparently I exceeded the advertised limit of 10,000 characters...  Oops...
Sorry...
Part 1 of 2

Steve,

Sorry I have not responded sooner...  Life is way too hectic...!!!   I've
not heard much from them either except to say that their lawyers did not
feel we were entitled to be receiving our Source Code any longer...  And
that communication came in the form of a nice little piece of paper
enclosed with our Service Pack 3 delivery...!!!  Nice of them to tell us in
person I thought...

They probably couldn't get anyone to volunteer for that happy task...!!!
Maybe that explains why so many people are leaving JBA all of a sudden...
I can just see the scene playing out...  ..."OK we need a volunteer to tell
our customers that they are not going to be getting any more Source Code...
Who's it gonna be...  Anyone...?  OK it looks like we're going to have to
draw lots..."  So the person who gets the short straw says, "No thanks, I
think I'll find a customer on the customer list who has a Source Code
provision in their contract and go work for them...  See ya..."

Funny though, I just found in my incoming snail-mail box today a letter
from GEAC - Smart Enterprise Solutions...  (Our friend Harry Debes...)
This is the result of the customer satisfaction survey from the end of last
year...  Basically it talks about all of their new initiatives and as a
bonus (because  ... "We want to win back your confidence and we need to
earn it in a pro-active manner with more than just words.") they are
dropping their rates by 10--15% for the following services:

Project Management  drops to       $ 160 / hr.
Consulting          ""   $ 145 / hr.
Programming         ""   $ 125 / hr.

Now, I don't know what you are paying your programming staff but we have
excellent programmers on staff and they are making less than half of that
figure...  I don't know about the rest of you folks but I consider
withholding Source Code a CON-active approach to winning back my
confidence...!!!   And forcing us to pay those rates by withholding Source
Code is equivalent to extortion or blackmail...

Apparently the managers still get bonuses and "...a substantial portion of
their bonus will be based on Customer Satisfaction."  I'm afraid we will
not be anywhere near satisfied unless and until we get our Source Code
back!!!

It is quite an entertaining letter, if you have not received yours or if
you did not respond to the survey let me know...

See ya...


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