Re: IM Consumability Survey
What customers are actually using Informix besides the handful like Walmart and Sears? It seems kind of silly to ask for information from people when you really haven't done the marketing to justify a survey. You can't be serious with 10 customers can you? If I were you I'd focus on marketing what you have rather than trying to improve something hardly anyone is using. Kevin Cherkauer wrote: > > So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which > of your buttons > > they can press to help push more kit. > > It's really not that cynical. They are trying to understand which areas of > the product produce a painful user experience so this information can be > used to decide what areas to prioritize in future engineering work. Of > course the end goal is to sell more product, but the means to that end is > actually to make the product better in areas that are causing customer pain. > So it is supposed to be win-win: we make the product serve your needs > better, which leads you to perhaps buy more of it *because* it is serving > your needs better -- not because someone tricked you into it. > > Information from prior consumability surveys was used to help choose some of > the new features and areas to be reworked in Cheetah and Cheetah 2. > > When we don't get enough input from actual customers, we have to guess. We > try to make the guesses as educated as possible through a formal internal > consumability "survey" process, where a cross-section of people with > knowledge of a given product (e.g. product management, QA, information > development (what we call the tech writers), engineering, tech support, > etc.) form a team to attempt to estimate the consumability on numerous > different dimensions. I participated in one of these efforts for IDS a year > or two ago. We do our best, but the product would benefit even more if real > live customers and users like you took the survey, especially if you attempt > to make constructive criticisms (not just why some area is bad, but also > suggestions for how it could be improved). :-) >
In article <DTA9k.13911$Pl4.2972@fe171.usenetserver.com>, InDeep says... > >What customers are actually using Informix besides the handful like Walmart and >Sears? why do you have to show repeatedly that you are the biggest fucking idiot in this group. If only handful were using informix, then we would not have seen any new versions to informix, much less a version like 11.50 which has far more features than previous many versions of Informix. You mean IBM is clueless to invest in a product used by only Walmart and Sears.
On 29 Jun, 01:42, InDeep <ind...@indeep.com> wrote: > What customers are actually using Informix besides the handful like Walmart and > Sears? > > It seems kind of silly to ask for information from people when you really haven't > done the marketing to justify a survey. You can't be serious with 10 customers > can you? > > If I were you I'd focus on marketing what you have rather than trying to improve > something hardly anyone is using. > > > > Kevin Cherkauer wrote: > > > So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which > > of your buttons > > > they can press to help push more kit. > > > It's really not that cynical. They are trying to understand which areas of > > the product produce a painful user experience so this information can be > > used to decide what areas to prioritize in future engineering work. Of > > course the end goal is to sell more product, but the means to that end is > > actually to make the product better in areas that are causing customer pain. > > So it is supposed to be win-win: we make the product serve your needs > > better, which leads you to perhaps buy more of it *because* it is serving > > your needs better -- not because someone tricked you into it. > > > Information from prior consumability surveys was used to help choose some of > > the new features and areas to be reworked in Cheetah and Cheetah 2. > > > When we don't get enough input from actual customers, we have to guess. We > > try to make the guesses as educated as possible through a formal internal > > consumability "survey" process, where a cross-section of people with > > knowledge of a given product (e.g. product management, QA, information > > development (what we call the tech writers), engineering, tech support, > > etc.) form a team to attempt to estimate the consumability on numerous > > different dimensions. I participated in one of these efforts for IDS a year > > or two ago. We do our best, but the product would benefit even more if real > > live customers and users like you took the survey, especially if you attempt > > to make constructive criticisms (not just why some area is bad, but also > > suggestions for how it could be improved). :-)- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Verizon moved to Informix last year. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-73GLVL?OpenDocument&Site=dmmain&cty=en_us Cisco have started using it inside WAN Manger http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/cisco_wan_manager/11.0.00/database_interface/guide/backup.html http://www.informix-zone.com/node/263 http://www.informix-zone.com/files/presentations/dreamjob_balsbough_cisco.pdf In Fact ... "Cisco’s requirements inspired many of the enhancements in the IDS 11 (formerly code-named “Cheetah”) release" So why would Cisco put IDS inside their products if it is "something hardly anyone is using"?
> From: david@smooth1.co.uk > Subject: Re: IM Consumability Survey > Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:55:09 -0700 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > First, there are only a few very large customers like a Wal*Mart, K-Sears, etc... I could give you a list of large customers, however, I don't think IBM would like me talking about them. ;-) > Verizon moved to Informix last year. > http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-73GLVL?OpenDocument&Site=dmmain&cty=en_us > Verizon has been a long time customer of Informix. And they were/are large enough to warrant an on site Regency... er Premiere Services Engineer. > > Cisco have started using it inside WAN Manger > http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/cisco_wan_manager/11.0.00/database_interface/guide/backup.html > http://www.informix-zone.com/node/263 > http://www.informix-zone.com/files/presentations/dreamjob_balsbough_cisco.pdf > Yes, and so too does Moto imbed IDS. Unfortunately, the future for Moto isn't so bright ... Oh there are a lot of IDS customers out there and there are some former Informix customers that I could name too. Moto, Siemens, Cisco, etc ... all OEM IDS. Verizon,Wal*Mart, Home Depot, K-Sears all use IDS internally. Two different groups of "customers". And to InDeep's point, these lists of customers are mainly un-named. There are a lot of companies using IDS, but no one knows this. IDS aka Informix, is the IT Industry's dirty little sekret. Unfortunately the one area that IBM sucks is in viral marketing. But hey! Why fix something that even while broken, is still out selling DB2 on LUW aka distributed platforms? ;-) Its not the product which is broke, but the marketing and sales effort of IBM that is broke. On a side note... While IBM's IDS management team tries to get the word out internally, just briefing the sales force isn't enough. You have to give the sales force incentives to sell the product. Did you ever wonder why the sales force pushed so hard to convert IDS customers to DB2 right after the acquisition? Simple really. The sales rep was comp'd on net new licenses. A conversion from IDS to DB2 counted as a net new license. And of course, the Informix customer was now an existing IBM customer so you had lower barriers to entry. ;-) But hey! What do I know? Its not like I spent 5 years in the belly of the beast cross matrix'd to S&D... Oh wait. I was. :-( -G _________________________________________________________________ The other season of giving begins 6/24/08. Check out the i’m Talkathon. http://www.imtalkathon.com?source=TXT_EML_WLH_SeasonOfGiving
Indeep is a fucking idiot wrote: > In article <DTA9k.13911$Pl4.2972@fe171.usenetserver.com>, InDeep says... >> What customers are actually using Informix besides the handful like Walmart and >> Sears? > > why do you have to show repeatedly that you are the biggest > fucking idiot in this group. > Why do you think that you are right? > If only handful were using informix, then we would not have seen any > new versions to informix, much less a version like 11.50 which has > far more features than previous many versions of Informix. You mean > IBM is clueless to invest in a product used by only Walmart and Sears. > I'm not sure that the incremental improvements in Informix are good enough to sell to the market. I've yet to hear about anything from outside the c.d.i community or the IIUG. I believe IBM put money into the product to retain its existing base, but in the larger picture _outside_ the Informix community there is absolutely zero buzz or street cred. I've heard more about Postrges / Green Plum in the last year than anything coming from IBM. The improvements that I _have_ heard about speak to the existing customer base, and in the case of Walmart, they alone generate enough revenue to pay for improvements. So the thinking that IBM are pouring a lot of money into Informix is bogus, because nobody has ever even talked about a broader base of consumers other than the top few repeated here. There is no marketing program, nothing to get developers excited about. The full enterprise edition is time-bombed, as if anyone were actually going to use it in a production context, much less without paying for the license. Nobody has heard of Informix so that whole argument is bogus. So, I know I get under your skin, as well as a lot of the other IDS sychophants, but try to see outside the IBM/Informix box, and think about a world without Informix. _That_ is the world I live in, still waiting for the dolts at IBM to see opportunity instead of the status quo. Still waiting for Informix to be marketed like it should be. I could run circles around the people marketing Informix, and get a developer program going. But that is as likely as IBM actually having a marketing program for IDS. -ID-