Re: DB2 magazine / Informix Connextion

Well let me just drop my 10 cents worth in. Here in South Africa it seems that Informix has almost died out completely. A few big boys (with the money) keeping up-to-date and then the bottom feeders that are still running SE etc. Most sites, that I know of, migrated to Oracle or MS-SQL due to a lack of support, advertising and no on the ground info of the mid to end '90s (to tell the truth not much has changed) Most of the Informix clients had the feeling, after IBM acquisition of Informix that Informix would dissolve over a period of time. Most of the Informix 4gl software development houses have close down over the past 5years, but luckily it seems that IBM is keeping its promise and keeping Informix alive for the rest of the world. What a pity that Informix got a BIG price tag. Informix IDS 9.4 for Linux will cost us 9 times more per user than Oracle 9i Standard Edition for Linux. (or are we getting ripped off??? What are pricing like in the other countries of the world?) Not even speaking about the yearly maintenance fees. Ok, ok I know we will not have all the functionality that Informix gives us in the version of Oracle I am referring to, but for most financial managers it is the bottom right hand corner that speaks the hardest and we don't need all the bells and whistles. I placed a call to IBM and it took me (5min) holding, for 4 people, before I got to a person informing me that IBM don't give pricing directly, I need to speak to a business partners. The business partners only got back to me 2 days later!!! That is a total of +-60hours from my first call. Then to have the cherry on the cake the pricing is cast in concrete. No negotiations, not even for a non-profit organization. Man what is happening to customer service, competence levels and the personal touch??? Same call to Oracle (Ireland call center), friendly, efficient and quote in my inbox within 8 hours (even a guy speaking my native language, for crying out loud) What can I say, if the first impressions are anything to go on and the in-house skills and personal love for the product were not rooted in Informix, I would move to Oracle environment tomorrow?! Cheers from a diehard Informix lover. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> To: <informix-list@iiug.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 2:20 PM Subject: Re: DB2 magazine / Informix Connextion "Esteban Casuscelli" <estebanc00@yahoo.com.ar> wrote in message news:8a8f14b9.0409080131.68bebc1b@posting.google.com... > "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message > news:<2q6gkuFr76pqU1@uni-berlin.de>... >> "Esteban Casuscelli" <estebanc00@yahoo.com.ar> wrote in message >> news:8a8f14b9.0409071105.60455ba9@posting.google.com... >> > I don't know if you guys have seen this but talking about specific >> > informix things or material I think it is a good signal, isn't it? >> > >> > http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/731-eos.html >> >> (" IBM has announced that the planned end-of-service (EOS) date for >> Informix' Dynamic Server (IDS) 7.31 is now September 2009. In addition, >> the >> end-of-marketing (EOM) date is now September 2008.") >> >> Terrible if you're a reseller who's spent money promoting the IBM >> "Migrate >> to v9 now", of course :-) > > Okay, I 've got your point, but from the customer 's point of view it > is a good signal. > Anyway, there are a lot of new features in 9.4 that you haven't got in > 7.31 and that would help to move customers from 7 to 9. Obviously my comment was mainly tongue-in-cheek, and yes of course it is excellent news for customers, and as such was very strongly advocated to IBM by the IIUG. Taking off my IIUG hat and donning instead my resellers' one for a moment, there is a grain of truth in the assertion that the direct sales team and business partners have been encouraged up until now to promulgate the "Migrate!" message. But all in all I agree that this is a very positive move. > Anyway, there are a lot of new features in 9.4 that you haven't got in > 7.31 and that would help to move customers from 7 to 9. Now - remember I still have my resellers' hat on here so I know what a large number of customers think - this has been a very difficult argument to put across. It is undoubtedly true that there are a lot of new features in v9.4 but unless you plan to use them - and in my experience most customers *don't* use databalades, user-defined data types etc etc - the argument to move is not in fact that compelling. sending to informix-list

Franz, You need to get a quote for the Workgroup Edition, which is massively cheaper, and look at the Web site or other postings to this newsgroup that list the functional differences. Let me know if you want to be put in touch with a better reseller in SA. -- Regards, Doug Lawry www.douglawry.webhop.org "Franz Gr'tzmacher" <franzg@biblesociety.co.za> wrote in message news:chs792$ibt$1@news.xmission.com... > > Well let me just drop my 10 cents worth in. > > > > Here in South Africa it seems that Informix has almost died out completely. > A few big boys (with the money) keeping up-to-date and then > > the bottom feeders that are still running SE etc. Most sites, that I know > of, migrated to Oracle or MS-SQL > > due to a lack of support, advertising and no on the ground info of the mid > to end '90s (to tell the truth not much has changed) > > > > Most of the Informix clients had the feeling, after IBM acquisition of > Informix that Informix would dissolve over a period of time. > > Most of the Informix 4gl software development houses have close down over > the past 5years, but luckily it seems that IBM is > > keeping its promise and keeping Informix alive for the rest of the world. > > > > What a pity that Informix got a BIG price tag. Informix IDS 9.4 for Linux > will cost us 9 times more per user than Oracle 9i Standard Edition for > Linux. > > (or are we getting ripped off??? What are pricing like in the other > countries of the world?) Not even speaking about the yearly maintenance > fees. > > > > Ok, ok I know we will not have all the functionality that Informix gives us > in the version of Oracle I am referring to, but > > for most financial managers it is the bottom right hand corner that speaks > the hardest and we don't need all the bells and whistles. > > > > I placed a call to IBM and it took me (5min) holding, for 4 people, before I > got to a person informing me that IBM don't > > give pricing directly, I need to speak to a business partners. The business > partners only got back to me 2 days later!!! > > That is a total of +-60hours from my first call. Then to have the cherry on > the cake the pricing is cast in concrete. > > No negotiations, not even for a non-profit organization. > > Man what is happening to customer service, competence levels and the > personal touch??? > > > > Same call to Oracle (Ireland call center), friendly, efficient and quote in > my inbox within 8 hours (even a guy speaking my native language, for crying > out loud) > > What can I say, if the first impressions are anything to go on and the > in-house skills and personal love for the product were not rooted in > Informix, > > I would move to Oracle environment tomorrow?! > > > > Cheers from a diehard Informix lover. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> > To: <informix-list@iiug.org> > Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 2:20 PM > Subject: Re: DB2 magazine / Informix Connextion > > > "Esteban Casuscelli" <estebanc00@yahoo.com.ar> wrote in message > news:8a8f14b9.0409080131.68bebc1b@posting.google.com... > > "Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message > > news:<2q6gkuFr76pqU1@uni-berlin.de>... > >> "Esteban Casuscelli" <estebanc00@yahoo.com.ar> wrote in message > >> news:8a8f14b9.0409071105.60455ba9@posting.google.com... > >> > I don't know if you guys have seen this but talking about specific > >> > informix things or material I think it is a good signal, isn't it? > >> > > >> > http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/731-eos.html > >> > >> (" IBM has announced that the planned end-of-service (EOS) date for > >> Informix' Dynamic Server (IDS) 7.31 is now September 2009. In addition, > >> the > >> end-of-marketing (EOM) date is now September 2008.") > >> > >> Terrible if you're a reseller who's spent money promoting the IBM > >> "Migrate > >> to v9 now", of course :-) > > > > Okay, I 've got your point, but from the customer 's point of view it > > is a good signal. > > Anyway, there are a lot of new features in 9.4 that you haven't got in > > 7.31 and that would help to move customers from 7 to 9. > > Obviously my comment was mainly tongue-in-cheek, and yes of course it is > excellent news for customers, and as such was very strongly advocated to IBM > by the IIUG. Taking off my IIUG hat and donning instead my resellers' one > for a moment, there is a grain of truth in the assertion that the direct > sales team and business partners have been encouraged up until now to > promulgate the "Migrate!" message. > > But all in all I agree that this is a very positive move. > > > Anyway, there are a lot of new features in 9.4 that you haven't got in > > 7.31 and that would help to move customers from 7 to 9. > > Now - remember I still have my resellers' hat on here so I know what a large > number of customers think - this has been a very difficult argument to put > across. It is undoubtedly true that there are a lot of new features in v9.4 > but unless you plan to use them - and in my experience most customers > *don't* use databalades, user-defined data types etc etc - the argument to > move is not in fact that compelling. > > > > sending to informix-list