Jeff Woods <[log in to unmask]> wrote (under "Cognos alternatives?")

>I know that Adager (among others) decided to charge a fixed price regardless
>of machine size.  Perhaps that is due in part to altruism, but somehow I
>suspect it's also possible because they have (what I would guess, but
>certainly have no data to substantiate) a very large, very loyal, and very
>satisfied customer base paying them enough annual support to finance the
>size and type company they wish to be.  Even this is now changed now that HP
>has introduced the 918/DX for software developers.  I notice that Adager
>seems to be available for that "tier" at $450.  If someone starts a new
>development company using a 918/DX and as it grows decide they need to move
>their internal business support tasks off the 918/DX to (for example) a 939,
>I expect Adager would want an upgrade fee.  But I know it would be a
>reasonable one.  [Honestly, I don't mean to "pick on" Adager because I
>believe it is an excellent vendor, but they have been sited several times
>in this forum as an example of a product that doesn't charge by hardware
>tier.]

All of Jeff's points are well taken (at least by me).  I am sure many of
his points will cause grief to other people.  Such is life :-)

This is definitely NOT an easy issue and I believe "feel" has much more to
do with it than "science" (if there is such a thing as "pricing science").

I have had long conversations with Wirt on this topic.  In fact, I stole
Wirt's idea of charging $450 for Adager for the Developer's HP3000
(stealing somebody else's ideas is the highest compliment, and I have
nothing but the highest respect for Wirt).

So, to steal yet another idea from Wirt, I would like to state, publicly,
that Adager will be happy to consider a good tier-based DISCOUNT for a
Series 908 (or equivalent) smallish HP3000 whose target audience is not
"developers" but "small businesses" (or small locations for any size of
business, or whatever).

I hope that, by now, everyone confidently interprets "a good tier-based
DISCOUNT" from Adager as something that is virtually guaranteed to be
extremely reasonable.  Jeff used the word "altruism" but perhaps he meant
"enlightened non-myopic self interest".  Whatever the term may be, the idea
is to help grow the HP3000 base as much as possible (within the limits of
our capabilities and within the limits of what we can control).  This
HP3000 growth benefits everyone involved and, naturally, this includes
Adager.  We are all in the same boat and Adager is proud to row as much as
possible.  Now that HP has kindly started a healthy trend with the HP3000
918/DX for software developers, Adager is committed to supporting HP in its
efforts to provide low-cost HP3000 computers to as wide an audience as
possible.


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|               |
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|            r  |  Alfredo              mailto:[log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs           Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
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