The last time I checked, about one year ago, Cognos had done away with
their 'user based license' for the MPE boxes, though it was still available
for their other platforms.
  While there maybe some room to negotiate, especially if you have more than
one machine, for some 'enterprise wide agreement' they will get a *big*
chunk of your money.

Regards
Paul H. Christidis
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Cognos alternatives?
Author:  Cortlandt Wilson <[log in to unmask]> at CCGATE
Date:    01/22/98 18:56

Ted Ashton <[log in to unmask]> wrote
| We're looking at upgrading our 947lx to a 979ks  <snip>
| We use Quiz, Quick and | Qtp all fairly heavily,
| but I'm a-feared that that extra cost will turn this
| upgrade from a possible reality into a definite impossibility.

Integrated programming environments don't come cheap.    Even so, years ago
the HP 3000 community rushed to put itself to Cognos restrictive handcuffs
and scorned (in some cases literally) the alternatives.   I have the
dubious pleasure of predicting this 'delayed buyer's remorse" many years
ago.

Oracle charges about $ 1,500 per simultaneous user (support not included)
for it's DBMS.    At that price an unlimited license for a 979 might cost
several times $100k.   You didn't say for what and how many you were quoted
by Cognos.

No one has covered the obvious strategies . . .
Strategies:
1. Purchase only the runtime version for the new box.
2. Purchase only the number of user licenses that you need.
3. Run all the Cognos apps from the old box and connect to the new using a
distributed database connection.    Some network magic could make a dual
connection almost invisible.
4. Investigate automatic language conversion software (can run on any
platform)


- Cortlandt