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