Phil Esguerra wrote:
 
>HP used to sell an Imaging product called HP-AIMS (Advanced Image Management
>System) on the HP9000, which we happily bought, because it had the HP label.
                ^^^^^^
 
Aha!  There's your problem :-)
 
>However, about one year from the time we bought the Imaging product, HP
>stopped selling it and even dropped support for it!!!@#@# Just imagine,
>we were stuck with it, and had to scramble to find another company that would
>support it!!
>
>I guess it would have been a good idea to get a written commitment that
>HP would support it for at least 5 years. CAVEAT EMPTOR.
 
I don't mean to make light of an event which obviously caused you pain, but I
do think that there are some differences between that situation and the
FileNet announcement on the HP3000.  First, FileNet is an independent company
who is recognized as the leader in document imgaging.  The FileNet product is
already a proven winner and isn't likely to be going away soon.  Second, we at
CSY (the providers of the HP3000) have a proven track record of protecting
our customer's investments - heck, we still support DEL.  I'm not trying to
say anything bad about the HP9000 - I'm sure that the HP-AIMS product wasn't
developed or canceled by their division.  It is highly unusual (as far as I
understand these things) for an HP product of any type to be so quickly be
obsoleted and unsupported - especially without providing some type of
migration plan for the customers who bought the product.
 
How long ago did this happen?  I can't believe that this kind of a thing
could happen now that we're spending so much effort on customer satisfaction.
Of course, I have been accused of being naive once or twice in my life :-).
 
Craig Fairchild
CSY, MPE/iX File System Architect