Re: SSA Licensing Fees and OGS -- BPCS-L

AS/400 mix mode BPCS 405 CD

There are separate issues that can get entangled.

You are using BPCS on a 400.  You pay a license fee to SSAX GT for the
privilege of using their software to run your business.  This fee varies with
the collection of modules you using, and the power of the 400 ... an
important factor is the number of users, not of the 400 but of BPCS.  It
would be easy for SSAX GT to audit this if their damn software had reorgs to
get rid of deleted profiles that are no longer IBM profiles (one of the
modifications on my to do list).

This license fee sometimes is available for multiple years rather than on an
annual basis.  We have IBM Leasing & we pay for some of our software
purchases & licenses via a monthly payment to IBM Leasing.  Some local bank
offered us a better deal on this than IBM Leasing.  I was a bit nervous about
that because banks not using IBM stuff might not understand IBM stuff & this
might complicate an already complicated situation with IBM upgrades.  IBM
Leasing wants our business.  Banks are more fickle.

Now I do not know if SSAX GT has tried to pull this or not, but they could
say that your license is for a 400 & now you going to an iSeries, which is
not a simple upgrade, but a totally different box, so they hit you for fees
again.  They tried to pull this when we went from S/36 to AS/36.  We had
license that said that we would not have to pay anything more when we
upgraded to new versions of S/36 & they honored that until the new model was
an AS/36, then we fought them for 6 months because the price was so great.

Well I am real happy they did not pull this when we went from AS/36 to AS/400.
We just got a new license for the new version of BPCS that we converted to.

This license fee does NOT come with tech support.  That is a SEPARATE deal.
You CAN get some discount sometimes some SSA promotion in which you pay for
both in some package deal, but the only thing you HAVE to pay SSA is the
right to use license their software on your machine.

This license key is for a particular 400 serial number running a particular
version of BPCS with a specified mix of applications & no more than the
number of users you said.  You need to contact SSAX if your business grows to
more users, and if you want to add some more of their applications.  It is
also smart to contact SSAX if the business suffers in bad economy & no longer
as many users so you might seek a lower priced license.  But if you think it
gonna fluctuate, it might not be worth the hassle to be jerking it around, so
long as your deal is for some number of users you not going to exceed.

If you upgrade to a new model 400, you need a new license key.
If your account is up to date with SSAX they should provide you this for free.

Unfortunately SSA has a lot in common with IBM when it comes to keeping track
of their accounting for what customers should pay for what & what in fact
they have paid.  Both SSA & IBM are in the technology business.  Professional
Accounting is not their bag.  Thus, when arranging for a replacement license
key, be sure to allow for lots of extra time for this task to get screwed up,
not explained to you why it is screwed up (there is a hold on the process
because their accounting records are screwed up).  It really helps to locate
proof of payment for the right to use BPCS & SSA's paperwork of the time of
how long that was for, because the odds are high that SSA can misplace that
information when it comes time for you to get a replacement key.

Similarly there is a risk that the key supplied does not work & you have to
get another.  So allow time for this kind of hassle in your planning.

There are versions of BPCS that SSAX GT no longer supports, and as they come
out with new versions, the oldest ones now supported get sunshine dates when
tech support will no longer be available from SSAX GT, so you periodically
need to review whether you like your version so much that you not want to
upgrade, knowing SSA tech support will no longer be available to you.

If you get tech support from SSAX GT, it comes with OGS.
A company can often be in the boat that the employees who get the benefits of
OGS are not the same people who make the financial decision which place to
get tech support from, so what gets factored into that decision is not the
value of OGS.

There are several other places that offer tech support for BPCS.
Depending on the nature of your calls to tech support, they may be more
valuable to you, more economical, or you may wish to remain with SSA's
version.  The other outfits are quite different in their definition of tech
support, customer service, pricing & so forth.

You can get tech support in which if you do not call them that year, you pay
nothing, and when you do call, you are charged at the hourly rate of the
person solving the problem, and if they do not solve it you pay nothing.

You can get tech support in which the 3rd party dials into your 400 & runs
diagnostics & analysis to figure out stuff beyond the ability of the person
who is having the problem.

If you have modified BPCS & something goes wrong with what you modified, it
can be hard to convince SSAX tech support that the problem is in THEIR part
of the code.  3rd party outfits can support what you have, regardless of
whether it came from SSA, your mods, them, some other 3rd party outfit.

Have you ever called SSA tech support & you need to tell them again what
version you on & who you are & etc. & repeat the story because it is a
different tech person than whoever took the call originally?  Some 3rd party
support people keep a file on their customers so as to incorporate CRM in the
tech support.

If you get tech support from some other place, it does not come with OSG.
It might come with something comparable.

I think the other places have mixtures of things that are vastly superior to
what comes from SSAX & realities that are not as good, so you need to seek
some quotes & guarantees & references, to see if that path is appropriate for
your business.

Access to neccessary PTFs can be problematic if you are getting your tech
support from some place other than SSAX GT.  How do you find out what you
need, then how do you get at it?  However, if you are on a stable version of
BPCS, you might not need to go through that hassle very often.

You also need continuing education for your people in how to use BPCS
effectively.  You can get that from SSAX GT.
You can also get that from 3rd party places.

This continuing education comes in many forms.
Private Classes at their site.
Teachers come to do class at your site (more economical to fly one teacher
than a bunch of students).
Consultants come to a department of your company to help the people in that
department use BPCS more effectively.
Manuals.
Conferences.

Many of the 3rd party places offer tech support & education & various add-ons
to BPCS.

> From: RickCarter@holley.com
>
>  As400 Mix mode BPCS 6.1.01
>
>  I have a couple of questions regarding the license issue with BPCS and also
>  OGS.
>
>  I just received new licensing contracts from SSA and the numbers are rather
>  astounding.  I was not involved with previous licensing and OGS contacts so
>  I'm trying to understand a few things about renewing OGS and User
>  Licensing.
>
>  1)  If I drop  OGS, and plan on staying on the version of BPCS I'm on, do I
>  still have to renew my user license for BPCS on an annual basis.
>
>  2) By dropping OGS, if I upgrade my AS400, how can I get the new key from
>  SSA.   The last time I upgraded the my machine, I had to contact SSA for a
>  new key                  for the new machine.  Maybe the key isn't tied to
>  OGS but to the product licensing.
>
>  Any information is appreciated.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
BPCS 405 CD Manager / Programmer @ Global Wire Technologies Incorporated
http://www.globalwiretechnologies.com = new name same quality wire
engineering company: fax # 812-424-6838