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I'm not sure that this is the place to discuss this old chestnut but for what
it's worth...
The whole subject of Cognos overcharging for machine upgrades has been around
for a while and I have heard a considerable number of tales of woe from angry,
shocked and frustrated System Managers who have decided to upgrade their
systems and suddenly found that the Powerhouse licence upgrade cost is more
than the cost of the hardware upgrade. This practice seems unethical, namely
because the customers have already paid large sums to purchase the product in
the first place and also fork out annual maintenance fees to cover R and D and
software upgrades. Also, they are more than likely to have become locked into
the Powerhouse product and face large costs to rewrite their code using an
alternative product. I have even heard about a site that was so incensed by the
cost of the Powerhouse upgrade when they wanted to go from a 980/100 to a
980/200 in the UK that they purchased a competing 4GL as well and then managed
to get a reasonable quote from Cognos. They are keeping both to retain the
negotiating option for their next hardware upgrade.
 
This whole process seems to be flawed. If Cognos wishes to charge customers
when they do a hardware upgrade although they are using exactly the same code
as before with no increased functionality, it should be a nominal charge, not a
huge amount.  Altenatively, the customers should only be charged when they
upgrade to newer versions of the software, to pay for the increased
functionality similar to the upgarde process for PC software.
 
That's my 10 cents , anyway.
John Dunlop (the thoughts expressed here are strictly my own).