In article <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] writes >>People keep writing these kinds of stories on this list. As a vendor, the >>primary take-home lesson that I'm slowly getting from all of this is: if >>people are willing to put up with such increases, we've gotta raise our >>prices! > >>Wirt Atmar > >No, that's not the message. If people check their third-party vendor policies >before upgrading, they sometimes make other choices based on the >answers. One answer I see among companies I'm familiar with is to put >off the upgrade as long as possible, while looking for ways to get more >out of the current machines. > >Another answer is one I'm seeing right now, at a company which is still on >a Series 70 because of the outrageous price of an upgrade for a certain >report writer (guess which one!). Faced with an imminent Y2K problem >and concern about running the company on unsupported hardware and >software, the decision was finally made to upgrade to a RISC processor. >The solution to the outrageously-priced report writer is to dump it, even >though that means identifying, deciphering, and rewriting about 16 years' >worth of reports (probably in QueryCalc). > >This is not the first client I've had that finally had enough. Another >company had the whole package, transaction processor and screen >formatter as well as the report writer. It was their only language, but >they dumped it rather than pay the upgrade cost, and rewrote >everything. > >Some managers do look beyond the current quarter and realize that >it won't take more than a year or two to recover the cost of replacing >exorbitantly-priced tools, and start showing savings. > >Cecile Chi > Have you tried costing out the option of buying a small processor to write the OPRW code on, and just a runtime licence for the production box? AIUI, this can be a lot cheaper than the average 'conventional' upgrade costs on a big processor. And all that rewriting effort! It seems a shame to let the cost of gouging negate ongoing software... -- Roy Brown Phone : (01684) 291710 Fax : (01684) 291712 Affirm Ltd Email : [log in to unmask] The Great Barn, Mill St 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not TEWKESBURY GL20 5SB (UK) know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'