Re: Ridiculous software transfer fees

[James.Hawkins@xxxxxxxxxx]

A few years ago, place I worked need to replace our box that was a P30. We 
had our BP size a new box for us and came up with a P20 solution.  We 
check with our sw vendors and that would be OK (some were going to charge 
us a few bucks for the new license, but nothing like what was quoted). 
However, we also knew that the company was aggressively looking to grow by 
acquiring other companies. If that happened, we anticipated outgrowing the 
new box quickly.  So, we posed the question-"if we need to go back to a 
P30, what would it cost"  those that were generally less expensive for the 
license transfer were fairly reasonable.  One company indicated that the 
fact we had been on a P30 and priced accordingly for the purchase of the 
SW indicated that we would be required to pay a P20 to P30 upgrade charge 
equivalent of the market difference between the two boxes  (about 5 times 
the difference of buying a P30 instead of a P20).--then we ended up 
getting sold.
Another sw vendor  didn't charge us based on tier groups but on seats. 
However a P20 box had so many seat minimum and a P30 had a larger seat 
minimum, etc.

I am beginning to wonder if the death of the -AS/400, i5, i Series, system 
i (or whatever the name is this week)- won't because of anything IBM does 
or doesn't do; but, because of the pricing structures by the sw vendors 
for the box.

Jim