Insider #76: Highlights: IBM sales strategy, Cheetah, BOD meeting, Conferences, Awards ...

IIUG Insider (Issue #76) October 2006 Highlights: IDS 10 free downloads for IIUG members IBM Information Management sales strategy IBM Previews IDS "Cheetah" Data Server IIUG board meeting in Vienna and Anaheim Informix Customer Advisory Council meeting in Anaheim IIUG/IDUG conference in Vienna - Recap IBM Information On Demand 2006 in Anaheim - Recap 4 out of 5 Distinguished Achievement Awards go to Informix Business Partners Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Editorial * Highlights IDS 10 Free downloads for IIUG members IBM Information Management sales strategy IBM Previews IDS "Cheetah" Data Server IIUG board meeting in Vienna and Anaheim Informix Customer Advisory Council meeting in Anaheim IIUG/IDUG Conference in Vienna - Recap IBM Information On Demand 2006 in Anaheim - Recap 4 out of 5 Distinguished Achievement Awards go to Informix Business Partners * Conference corner Informix User Forum 2006 IDUG/IIUG NA Conference San Jose May 6-10, 2007 Ask the Experts - European IDUG 2006, Austria * Education Save Twice! Get 10% and up to $5,000 with an IBM Education Pack - online account Prepare for Information Management Professional Certification with On-line Assessment Exams New IBM Informix Dynamic Server Version 10 Professional Certification Role and Exam L1846 * IBM Informix Dynamic Server Administration * Classroom * 4 days * $ 2,500 Check out the latest Information Management Featured title: Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design IBM Informix Education from IBM * Developer corner New on developerWorks A new release of InformixDB, the Python API module for developing Informix applications in Python * Informix News Hotel chain upgrades CDI software to boost bookings IBM to unleash Cheetah Run Cheetah Run * Information IBM Introduces Processor Value Unit Licensing * IIUG Board New on the IIUG website The IIUG and DBTA magazine collaborate on a new survey Spatial Interest Group * Calendar of events * Useful links * Closing and credits ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial ----------------------------------------------------------------------- It has been a hard and fascinating month. At the beginning of the month I was in Vienna at the IIUG/IDUG conference, my wife was in Brazil giving a seminar on intellectual property, my youngest daughter bag packing in China and my two other kids at home in Israel. A truly international family. After a few days at home I headed to the IBM IOD conference in Anaheim. It is not as cool as it sounds. Being away from family and work has its price. I often ask myself why I am doing it. Serving on the board is not part of my professional career and putting in many hours week after week is less time I have to spend with my family. The reward is to be part of the growing Informix success. Informix is a major part of my professional life and is the main software product for my company but there is more to it than that. Informix for me is a passion. Many of you share this passion with me. I would like to see more taking this extra step joining the IIUG board, participating in our local user groups, our forums and if it is not too much to ask supplying content for the Insider. This issue of the Insider has more highlights then regular articles. So many great things are happening with Informix and the IIUG that I did not know which of them to highlight. I hope I will have the same problem in November.This is the first time that a director of IBM Information Management is addressing us directly in the IIUG Insider.Beside the valuable information, it is a proof of the growing relationship between the IIUG and IBM.Read about IBM Information Management sales strategy, show it to your management and colleagues and help Informix regain its place in the market. I would like to thank Alyse for sharing this Information with us and for her strong support. Gary Ben-Israel IIUG Insider Editor IIUG Board of Directors gary@iiug.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Highlights ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IDS 10 FREE DOWNLOADS FOR IIUG MEMBERS IBM is offering free IDS 10 Ux5 downloads. It is a full IDS 10 product except for replication. There is no time limit and the only limitation is a 5 concurrent session limit. The downloads are available only at the IIUG member area. To obtain the downloads go to http://www.iiug.org/members and login in, or you may use your personal login link at the bottom of this newsletter. Once you login, go to Software Downloads and click on the IDS 10 button. Make sure you update your profile before you download. The profile information is very important for us, so please review it carefully and make sure it is up to date. If you are not an IIUG member, please join us; it is free of charge and offers much more then downloads. Downloads are available for the following platforms: * Windows * Linux 32 Bit * IBM AIX 64 Bit * HP-UX 11i 64 Bit * Sun Solaris 64 Bit The software is based on the latest version of IDS 10 Workgroup Edition and has no limitations except for a five user limit. The IIUG wishes to thank the following people for making this happen: Bernie Spang, Jerry Keesee, Bruce Weed, Cindy Fung, Gary Proctor and most important all the IBM Informix Developers for creating the best database on the market today. Gary Ben-Israel IIUG Board of Directors IBM INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SALES STRATEGY Dear Informix User Community, As the worldwide leader for our Data Server sales business, it was my pleasure to spend some time with the IIUG board at our first annual Information on Demand event in Anaheim, California and to update them on our Informix product and go to market strategy. We had very open dialog regarding our sales approach of our Informix products, and I wanted to share some of that dialog directly with you. This is captured similarly to the Q&A form that we held at the conference. I know you will agree that IBM continues to strongly sell and support Informix across all facets of our business. Thank you for your continued loyalty! Q: What has been done in the past year to educate IBM sales force in the Informix product line and what is planned in the near future? A: We spend a significant amount of time educating and enabling our sales team on a regular basis, and have done dozens of sales enablement sessions around the world. We host weekly data server webcasts to refresh on sales plays, success stories, strategies and more. As a matter of fact, we hosted three Informix webcasts in the last two months, as well as other on our data server portfolio in general, where we also covered Informix. We have dedicated marketing, WW sales and pre-sales, and competitive teams per data server that are constantly executing these activities to make sure our sales teams have the right skills and the right vision. Again, this is an on-going task and we will continue to in