Re: Informix Directions

Paul Brown wrote: > > Mark D. Stock (mdstock@informix.com) wrote: > : > Tim Schaeffer Pointed out: [SNIP] > > Tim - how big a check can you sign? You're a smart guy. Your manager > signs your check. (And probably the checks of all your peers.) > > The sad, grinding reality is that developers do not sign checks. > INFORMIX has always been able to sell technology to developers. As > I pointed out, INFORMIX routinely wins the technical battle. > Technically smart people get it. > Paul, You see half the picture, Tim and Mark see the other half. Now both groups take a step back and see the whole picture. Who makes the sale? Well we all know that the Informix sales rep closes the deal. Thats only part of it. Is the project manager who has to use the tool to accomplish his goals. Its the outside consultant hired to help with the project. Its the developer who is actually going to do the work. Then its the management team who has to look that the costs and risks of using any tool. Of course Paul, you hit the nail on the head. Informix is always trying to sell the latest whizbang technology. Not Solutions. That's what the clients want. They want solutions. I've been on several clients where the code I had to fix was total crap. It worked but it was thrown together. Management was happy because it worked. The bottom line as far as they were concerned, as long as the code worked, they were happy. Even though it took me twice as long to fix and enhance, they were happy. > Then IFMX gets creamed. Anywhere O is, they can simply under-sell. > Manager looks at product A and product B and says, "Both databases. > One 10% the price of the other. Easy." > > Hence the "high end". IFMX can get the check signed where it can > be explained to management that there is only one reasonable technical > solution. And that's places with extreme performance, complexity or > scalabilty. > That is bullshit and pansy ass whining! Informix loses sales because they do not convey trust. There is a FUD factor. And Informix can't beat that. Oracle competes against Informix based on two things: 1) FUD 2) End to End solutions. Informix doesn't have the Professional Services staff in place to do that. Sybase does. Oracle does. Informix needs to. > As a techie I've been through this once before; as an Ingres customer > and then an Ingres employee. You look at a product from the outside > and you just can't believe it isn't doing great. Then you work for > a vendor for a while, and you learn why. > > Monday morning quarterbacking is an interesting exercise. I really > suggest interested readers go through _Crossing_the_Chasm_ by Moore. > One of the points he makes is that an 'early market' strategy should > focus on techies, but that a mature market strategy should focus > on leveraging the early market success by selling to (*gasp*) > managers with circumstances that the early market has shown your > technology excells at. IFMX excells at hard problems. > No they don't. Try reading a different set of books. Or rather a certain individual needs to. You aren't selling the right product. You also aren't listening to your customers. There's a technique known as the soft sell. I know only of two people who have mastered that technique. One used to work for Informix a long time ago. The salesman also has to look beyond the sale. Take the client from cradle to grave. The salesman has to manage the account. By selling only to upper management, the guy with the p/l responsibility, you blow the sale. > Again - my opinions only. No one listens to me anyway . . . Well that's because you need to carry a bigger stick. :-) Quit whining and making excuses. -- #include <std_disclaimer.h> /* Mike Segel (MS385) */ #include <No_Spam.h> #ifdef OFFENDED_BY_CONTENT The author takes no responsibility for this post. Any resemblence to a coherent rational thought is purely coincidence. -The Management. #endif ***************************** Due to AGIS's Refusal to Act Responsibly We are blocking all of their domains at the packet level. This block will exist until AGIS modifies their policies to conform to existing RFCs and net community standards. We encourage all ISPs and domain holders to do the same. *****************************