Re: Quality of Informix Support

Informix support has always had a reputation for being bad, particularly in the UK. I make my claim as both a developer and journalist who has been dealing with Informix for over 8 years. At the recent NewEra launch I challenged Informix UK about the standard of their support because Informix needs to reappraise it's approach to supporting users. It is once again playing around in the PC end of the market and the support expectations are very different from corporates running large database sites. The UK claim to have increased the number of support people, particularly for NewEra as to have sent everyone on a course to understand OO technology. They have also stated that their support model has proven so successful over the last couple of years that it is being exported to ALL the other European countries to ensure consistency. What did surprise me was the fact that it is only recently that any work was done to create a single Informix bug database which was available around the clock to all countries. Given the number of times I have had support issues resolved by the US rather than the UK in the past I can only say that this is about time. Certainly the uptake of Informix products such as NewEra into new sites and into sites currently using or considering tools like Gupta 5.0 which I have just reviewed means a dramatic overhaul of attitudes throughout the organisation. I personally wait to be convinced about the improved support particularly as NewEra is likely to show a large increase in the number of incoming support calls. -- Ian Murphy