Re: Find number of parms for a CL or passall

[Mark Lazarus <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Charlie,

>>UNFORTUNATELY, IBM's yet to realize that they need to change the marketing
>>paradym of "how many MORE will I sell if I add feature X" to "how many
>>will I LOSE if I DON'T!".

>>If they don't add features that uses require, their competition WILL!

>While I agree I do not like the nickel and diming IBM does, I do not agree
>that the competition WILL do what IBM will not.  One of the problems with a
>proprietary operating system is you are at the mercy of the vendor.  While
>most of us do have a problem with what IBM does and does not do, we really
>do not have another option.  Where else are we going to find an operating
>system as rich, integrated, and easy to use as OS/400?

>If we really want enhancements to products which will not really directly
>encourage new machine sales, I don't see any other way to encourage IBM to
>make those enhancements short of creating a separate revenue stream for the
>product.  Look at the MAJOR enhancements made to RPG.  Do you really think
>IBM would have made those enhancements if we weren't paying for them via the
>upgrade charges to RPG?

>CL and DDS are lost in the overall charge for OS/400.  If we do not provide
>a separate revenue stream for these products to be enhancements, I see
>little change we will see any real change other than those necessary to make
>the AS/400 more marketable to the "non-traditional" midrange user.

 As it is we are facing an uphill battle.  I'm referring (for better or
worse) to the glitzy PC systems and the difficulty implementing a C/S
solution using the /400.

 We try to sell the machine on its technical merits w/ the full suite of
integrated products, but it's getting harder and harder to do that. We can
throw out the 5 year cost of ownership numbers to them, but that will be
sharply balanced w/ the cash out of pocket NOW!!

 Also (to add to the nightmare), as a software vendor, how many _more_
version of the OS do you want to support ???  You know that that's one of
the consequences of a decision like this.

 -mark

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