Re: RDi renewal - was "RDi stops responding during interactive debug"

Edmund,

Thank you for looking into this... and thank Bill for his explanation. I truly appreciate both of your efforts, and my rant is not directed at you in any way.

But this IS the problem with IBM!! IBM needs to look at it from their customer's perspective, **not their own**.

As a customer, I am trying to run MY small business.
Frankly, I don't care what kind of issues IBM has internally with their software tracking systems or delivery methods - in this case IBM has FAILED the customer, period.
Purchasing RDi is not really a "choice" anymore - when you buy the RPG/Cobol compilers on an AS/400, you NEED RDi (we all know why).

I have zero issues getting renewal notices/invoices from any other vendors (hardware, software, services, etc.)

This isn't rocket science... Surely someone with common sense can figure it out. Maybe ask Watson?

If IBM is so intent on "building a smarter planet", they need to start within their own organization.

Rant over...

Thank you again Edmund - my business partner is trying to solve this for me.

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: WDSCI-L [mailto:wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Edmund Reinhardt
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 2:28 PM
To: midrange-WDSC WDSC message board
Subject: [WDSCI-L] RDi renewal - was "RDi stops responding during interactive debug"




Hi Greg, here is a response from our product manager.
HTH
Edmund
x-----------------------------------------------------------------------x

Hi Greg,

Rational Developer for i (RDi) is a type of product that IBM categorizes as
"distributed software" -- a stand-alone software product with its own
maintenance agreement. IBM markets a portfolio of thousands of distributed
software products. The Passport Advantage system is our infrastructure
designed to fulfill this type of software. Accordingly Passport was
designed with the capability to generate maintenance renewal quotes for
distributed software.


The "AAS" system that Edmund referred to, is infrastructure designed for
fulfilling hardware systems and their associated, so-called "entitled
software" (OS, compilers, etc.) which together fall under a group
maintenance agreement that is associated with the system's serial number (a
construct that Passport is completely unable to deal with). Throughout its
decades of service, the AAS system has **never** had the ability to
generate renewal reminders for distributed software. And for most (I would
venture 99%+) of our customers who fulfill product through AAS, this has
never been an issue. Thus there is not a compelling business case for
making the costly and potentially disruptive investment in AAS to enable it
to generate distributed software renewal quotes.


RDi is a special case. It is one of a very small number of distributed
software products that we've chosen to enable for sale through both AAS and
Passport. You've experienced the one major drawback of that choice. So
why did we choose to do it? Because there is a compelling business case
that outweighs the drawback: it enables our systems remarketers to include
the modern development tools when they sell IBM i systems, without forcing
their customers to hold their product entitlements in two different IBM
fulfillment systems.


In defense of the software entitlement person you spoke with: in large and
complex companies like IBM, specialization is unavoidable. That includes
specialization of systems, as I just described. Also specialization of
skills. Likely the person you spoke to is not an "idiot" but instead a
"specialist", trained to support distributed software products and
knowledgeable about Passport, yet perhaps completely unaware of AAS'
existence. RDi, while "dual pipe enabled" as I have just described, is
still considered distributed software. So a distributed software
specialist is likely to be the first person you'll be routed to with
questions about it.

So to summarize:

Your concern has been heard and acknowledged

I apologize that a business case cannot be made for resolving it in the
manner that you might prefer (i.e. an extensive investment in modifying
the AAS infrastructure). This has nothing to do with off-shoring or
what-have-you, it is simply the outcome of a reasoned business decision
that required us to weigh some trade-offs

You do have choices regarding who you purchase RDi from. That choice
will determine which infrastructure the product will be fulfilled from

When you fulfill RDi through the hardware distribution channel and the
AAS infrastructure that supports it, you are then responsible to set up
your own reminders of when your RDi maintenance agreements will come up
for renewal

Or, if you currently hold RDi entitlements in AAS and would like to have
them moved to Passport, you may request an entitlements migration. Fair
warnings:
a) you'll start with RDi Client Support (so the issue gets properly
tracked as a PMR), and then it may take a few "hops" to find and
engage the right person who'll know how to help you with this
b) there will be paperwork involved (because, for example, you have
never previously accepted the Passport Advantage legal T&Cs relative
to your RDi purchase(s)
c) all of your other IBM i-related software (e.g. compilers) and
hardware entitlements will remain in AAS (because it is the only
infrastructure capable of fulfilling those product types).


Thanks,
Bill
_________________________________________________________________
William T. Smith
Senior Product Lines Manager:
- Rational Application Developer
- Rational Developer for i and Rational Development Studio for i
- Rational Asset Manager
- Rational Professional Bundle

IBM | Systems | Middleware | Product Management and Design
(720) 430-9889 | t/l 912-9889 / (971) 207-2499 (mobile) /
smithtw@xxxxxxxxxx


From: Greg Wilburn <gwilburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Rational Developer for IBM i / Websphere Development Studio
Client for System i & iSeries'" <wdsci-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 08/12/2015 01:46 PM
Subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] Fw: RDi stops responding during interactive debug
Sent by: "WDSCI-L" <wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



Pretty sad when IBM is struggling to increase revenue and they're basically
ignoring money already on the table. Makes me wonder where else this is
happening.

It just seems so difficult to deal with them anymore.... they (IBM) take
the easiest thing and make it so difficult.