------ =_NextPart_001_01BFA3CB.B538CB70 Content-Type: text/plain Carl Galgano of EDI Consulting Services, Inc. has expressed displeasure with the aggressive manner in which Harbinger is marketing their new V5 product for the AS/400 to their existing customers. Carl; I do not work for an EDI consulting company, so I personally don't have the exposure you have because of Harbinger's actions, but I share your displeasure. My company does not yet need the new features of the V5 AS/400 product, we're not convinced that a TCP/IP connection capability that allows us to connect only to harbinger.net is such a good deal, and we dislike the fact that if the new software doesn't regularly connect to harbinger.net, it disables itself. The price incentives that Harbinger is offering for upgrades during Q1 and Q2 of calendar 2000 are pretty good, but they are also forcing rewrites of all the existing maintenance agreements, which involve arbitrary increases in both the percentage and the base value used to calculate the annual maintenance fee. They are justifying this increased maintenance fee by claiming that V5 is an "entirely new product;" if you've ever been involved in software development, you're probably as skeptical as I am that more than 20% of the code in V5 is actually new. To further aggravate the situation, the first notification we received from Harbinger regarding this action was 12/22/99, when my company's budget for FY2000 was a done deal. So, we're supposed to pay this upgrade fee and the wholly unjustified increase in annual maintenance with no budget. In summary, I view Harbinger's actions in this matter as poorly implemented, heavy-handed, and clearly oriented directly towards their own bottom line. The irony here is that we have been quite satisfied with their existing product, and, if their upgrade effort were not so crudely managed, we would not give much thought to upgrading at the appropriate time. Now, because of Harbinger's actions, we're going to be looking for alternatives rather than just upgrading. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Steve Becker System Administrator Sports Inc ph 406-538-3496 fx 406-538-2801 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------ =_NextPart_001_01BFA3CB.B538CB70 Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; = charset=3Dus-ascii"> <META NAME=3D"Generator" CONTENT=3D"MS Exchange Server version = 5.5.1960.3"> <TITLE>RE: Harbinger's push for V5 on the AS/400</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <P><FONT SIZE=3D2>Carl Galgano of EDI Consulting Services, Inc. has = expressed displeasure with the aggressive manner in which Harbinger is = marketing their new V5 product for the AS/400 to their existing = customers.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3D2>Carl;</FONT> </P> <P><FONT SIZE=3D2>I do not work for an EDI consulting company, so I = personally don't have the exposure you have because of Harbinger's = actions, but I share your displeasure. My company does not yet need the = new features of the V5 AS/400 product, we're not convinced that a = TCP/IP connection capability that allows us to connect only to = harbinger.net is such a good deal, and we dislike the fact that if the = new software doesn't regularly connect to harbinger.net, it disables = itself. The price incentives that Harbinger is offering for upgrades = during Q1 and Q2 of calendar 2000 are pretty good, but they are also = forcing rewrites of all the existing maintenance agreements, which = involve arbitrary increases in both the percentage and the base value = used to calculate the annual maintenance fee. They are justifying this = increased maintenance fee by claiming that V5 is an "entirely new = product;" if you've ever been involved in software development, = you're probably as skeptical as I am that more than 20% of the code in = V5 is actually new.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3D2>To further aggravate the situation, the first = notification we received from Harbinger regarding this action was = 12/22/99, when my company's budget for FY2000 was a done deal. So, = we're supposed to pay this upgrade fee and the wholly unjustified = increase in annual maintenance with no budget.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3D2>In summary, I view Harbinger's actions in this matter = as poorly implemented, heavy-handed, and clearly oriented directly = towards their own bottom line. The irony here is that we have been = quite satisfied with their existing product, and, if their upgrade = effort were not so crudely managed, we would not give much thought to = upgrading at the appropriate time. Now, because of Harbinger's actions, = we're going to be looking for alternatives rather than just = upgrading.</FONT></P> <P><FONT SIZE=3D2>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</FONT> <BR><FONT SIZE=3D2>Steve Becker</FONT> <BR><FONT SIZE=3D2>System Administrator</FONT> <BR><FONT SIZE=3D2>Sports Inc</FONT> <BR><FONT SIZE=3D2>ph 406-538-3496</FONT> <BR><FONT SIZE=3D2>fx 406-538-2801</FONT> <BR><FONT SIZE=3D2>[EMAIL PROTECTED] </FONT> </P> </BODY> </HTML> ------ =_NextPart_001_01BFA3CB.B538CB70-- ======================================================================= To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/
