Re: CL enhancements

[Mark Lazarus <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Simon,

At 12:12 PM 3/8/98 +1100, you wrote:
 
>>  One example: I had an opportunity to do a Y2K conversion.  I needed the
>> best tool on the market in order to do the job quickly (client's request.)
>> The IBM tool fit the bill (on a technical level) well.  There is no way
>> that I could build in the hefty price for their tool and do the project
>> under budget.


>Sounds like the client didn't really want the best tool for the job but
the best they could 
>afford.  It seems they had already decided on a budget without any idea of
the real costs.
>
>There is an aphorism that is appropriate for this situation:
>
>Fast, good, cheap; pick any two.
>
>Everybody wants 'good'.  They balance the other two compenents.  If they
pick fast, it isn't 
>going to be cheap.  If they pick cheap, it won't be fast.
>
>Your client wanted it fast and for a certain price; therefore they must
compromise on the 
>'good' component.  It is hardly IBM's fault if IBM's product doesn't fit
your clients cost 
>structure.  They may indeed be 'charging what the market can bear' rather
than what the tool 
>is worth but that's just capitalism in action.  If IBM's tool is the best
and people want the 
>best they will pay for it.

 No, I don't think you've got it right in this case.

1)  It took IBM way too long to get the product to market.  The Y2K issue
was no surprise.  They should have been the first out of the gate.  Since
they weren't, it gave the customer a feeling that IBM doesn't care enough.
Which leads to the second part of it:  It gave too many customers, that
were otherwise complacent (i.e. the inertia factor) the "opportunity" to
look elsewhere for solutions.  Those solutions aren't all running on the
IBM midrange platform.

2)  They lost the largest /400 shop in the U.S. Northeast, in large part,
due to this.

3)  In the example I mentioned above, the customer didn't care how it was
done, just that it got done within budget (or close.)  Once we combined the
cost of the tool and the labor, testing, installing, setting up a clean
environment for testing, etc., it wasn't worth pursuing anymore.

 -mark

root
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