Open Letter Robert D Thomas...

Robert, You don't know who George Dantzig was yet you wish to make a point that if you don't know something is impossible, if you attempt to solve a problem, you may actually succeed in solving the problem. Its a cute story, but alas, I'm one of those skeptics in the Informix community. I'm not sure where you were prior to your current role. On the surface, it seems you're here just to get your ticket punched, and then move on. So you can imagine why some of us will give you the benefit of the doubt, while others are extremely skeptical. Let me tell you the story of Ian Michael Gumby... Gumby is a mythical creature, of whom there are many stories. Some are true, like sending Dexmier a chia pet in response to Oracle's "Our Linux business is growing faster than grass grows". There are some that are rumors and some that are fiction. Only Gumby and a handful of people know which are true, which are exaggerations based on truth, and which ones are pure fiction. Gumby is clearly a persona created in part to allow an individual to say things that others also are thinking but it wouldn't be polite or politically correct to say them in public. The real life person behind Gumby is much different that his online persona. Gumby is a lot like your George Dantzig, in that he has a belief that if you present a problem, he'll figure out a solution. ;-) You're that problem Robert. You're the new "X" factor that could make a difference, or you could just be a stuffed shirt 'spouting' the same stuff that others have said before him. So, how do we know you're real? Let me see. Its taken IBM eight+ years to recognize that you have to differentiate IDS from its competition in the market. (Hmmm. A Time Series talk by Kevin Brown on a product he created 10+ years ago?) Now that's a first. ;-) How about getting rid of certain 'fscktards' regardless of their sex who just "don't get it" ? I'll give you the same example... "All Hands Calls" used to 'promote' a product don't work with S&D. Modifying their PBCs does. I mean, here's a simple example. How many IT Specialists are there? Break this down by geographical region. What percentage of IT Specialists are IDS certified? What percentage of IT Specialists are DB2 certified? I know the numbers in what you call Central Region. So how can your sales team sell a product that they don't know how to support? Has anyone gone to the FLMs and modified their PBCs to change this percentage to gain some form of parity? Ah. Now that's the $64,000.00 question. Of course the 'education' of the sales force is only part of the problem. With respect to IDS, you have no talking points. How about a 'go to market strategy'? Oh there's more. Much more. But you know what they say. "TANSTAAFL". And I'll toss you a bonus. There's a thing called "NoSQL" gaining momentum. Speaking of Kevin Brown, ask him what he knows of a certain Mike Olson... ;-) So yeah, I'm a skeptic. Lets see what you can do. But hey! What do I know? -G 5A8684 :-) _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID27925::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:032010_1