On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 08:54:53 -0600, Eric N. Bielefeld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>This has been a very interesting discussion. A few of the vendors have >givin very good reasons for having keys. This comes at a time when I was >givin the task to renew our Syncsort keys. I found that negotiating the >contract was part of the process, which is something I won't have to do, >fortuneatly for me. When they get the contract process done, I'll just have >to install the keys. By the way, does anyone know if Syncsort's key is a >hard fail key? I suspect it is after a grace period. > >I think its interesting that so many sysprogs on the list hate keys so much. >I think a lot of it is just poor business practices when you can't get a key >in time. Yes, there are a few vendors who are only available 9-5 M-F, which >could be a problem in a real disaster, but most of the major ones can >respond 24 by 7. > Yes a very interesting discussion indeed . There are arguments from each side I wonder what people would say if Microsoft was putting an expiring license key inside W2k or Office in our professional PC's Although everybody knows forbidden usage happens , keys are normaly used only in private PC's . If it was not so , we would not be able to handle deploiement of thousands of work stations . Software vendors recognise that and do not stop us from installing or running products whether we have 1000 or 25000 PC's .They trust us in our yearly negotiation. Just imagine your 5000 users without workstation one morning ? or 5000 warning messages at the help desk ? Oh boy ! What would happen when you replace the 5000 Netvista with 5000 Dell or NEC I would have to enter 3000 keys for 5000 machines because i have only 3000 users for Pcomm or excell ? I remember an antispam product that let the spam flow during a weekend because the license was expired . The fact is : i do not remember its brand anymore :-)) Trust is something that should go both ways . Why would customers trust marketing rep trying to sell software at 2 times the price it will eventually agree, everytime we need new keys ? Everytime a guy comes with a 300 000 dollars tag , we know we should be able to get it for 150 000. This behaviour is like asking us to pay for more machines or more MIPS than we actually have ! When we are billed for DB2, there is a price multiplied by an MSU consumption and that's it , not much for negociation . But no time wasted for bargaining or keys obtention , no DR problems , smooth business . So i agree that IBM is definietely not "the model" . Microsoft is not either . But allow me to find it difficult to do business with people who do not trust me and try to "rob" me . Cut smf records , get them from me and bill me accordingly , i'll allow you to come and see my systems . Bruno Bruno(dot)sugliani(at)groupemornay(dot)asso(dot)fr ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
