Re: Having much trouble working with our ERP vendor

[Bill <brobins3d@xxxxxxxxx>]

Don Cavaiani wrote:
> We cannot seem to work out a mutually beneficial way to move our ERP software up to a new IBM Systemi Server.
> If I understand correctly, NOT licensing our ERP software on the faster IBM server models will render all the vendor   programs run from the standard vendor ERP menus unusable. 
> We have for years now been modifying a large percentage (40-50%) of these ERP programs (modifications have been made to the original RPG source code).  In addition, we have developed several major 'bolt-ons' - using just the existing file structures and LANSA for the WEB.  We are investigating the possibility of dropping all the ERP menus and programs entirely, if/when moving to the new server.
> I am asking the group for a 'reasonableness' check on the possibility of this approach.

I don't see it coming to fruition.  Modifying a program doesn't remove 
the licensing restrictions that would be in place.  Creating new as a 
substitute would likely be ok, but I don't think you'd ever convince 
anyone that -none- of the logic contained therein was obtained by 
analysis of the licensed programs.

Also, the license check for the ERP package you are referring to is also 
embedded in many sections of code and not just the menuing interface.  I 
hope your company doesn't go down the road where you spend millions to 
save hundreds of thousands.

Bill