RE: Sierra Data Collection

We are using a company out of Petersburg, MI called SYS-TEC.  Most all of
their applications run on NT SQL servers so they use the PC-in-the-middle
approach.  Although their applications are not AS/400 based, they can create
all the necessary interfaces to communicate with the AS/400.

They have experience in writing data collection systems for JBA customers,
but they do not necessarily have any off-the-shelf systems since they build
applications to customer specifications.  If you are evaluating data
collection vendors, I would recommend giving them a call to see if they fit
your needs:

Bill Sobolewski
SYS-TEC Corporation
6911 Summerfield Road
Petersburg, MI 49270
Phone: (734) 854-3000

SYS-TEC has provided excellent service for TMD the past 2 years.

Kristopher J. Gonyer
Lead Analyst
Toledo Molding & Die, Inc.
Phone:  419 470 3950 x 234
Fax:  419 470 3977

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff_Klipa/Harvard@harvardind.com
[mailto:Jeff_Klipa/Harvard@harvardind.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 10:09 AM
To: JBAUSERS-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Sierra Data Collection


We are ourselves in the middle of an implementation project for SFDC and
did consider Sierra as a potential vendor...  I asked our project manager
what his experience was with them and this is what they said...

"We went there to Sierra and weren't that impressed, they were very
unorganized, their demo was very poorly planned and displayed,  and they
seemed only sales oriented.  Plus they were running a pirate version of
JBA, which made us uneasy.  They claim they're a JBA Business Partner but
[Our JBA (Geac) project manager] tells us they're not.  Too many shady
things..."

This is apparently why we're not using Sierra...

The inference I can make from this is that we were not big enough for them
to pay us the same kind of attention they paid to a giant like Lear...  Or
perhaps they already had all of their best people assigned to the Lear
project and that left the second string for us...

I don't know, I wasn't there so I cannot comment from personal
experience...  I can only share what our implementation team's experience
was during the vendor selection process and I hope to present a more
balanced view...  I'm glad Lear had a good experience with them...  As I'm
sure other customers have had as well...  Unfortunately, sometimes things
don't always go well in the demo so we'll never know if Sierra would have
been better then the vendor we eventually chose...  NuTech...
http://www.nutechsystems.com/

NuTech is having their own share of problems getting our first plant up and
running so I'm not prepared to give them a glowing review just yet
either...

Good luck...


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