Passport Advantage, Gold Bundle, and IDS 10

For background, see the "Client SDK 2.90 - where is it?" thread In the referenced thread some folks have indicated that they have access to IDS 10 as part of the Gold Bundle, at their Passport Advantage customer site." Our agency (State of Alaska, Dept. of Corrections) has Passport Advantage, the Gold Bundle, but no access to IDS 10. IBM PA told us in a recent email (today), "The Parts Issues team has advised that IDS 10 will be made available under the DM Gold Bundle product you purchased." That sounds an awful lot like IBM is saying that IDS 10 will be made available under the DM Gold Bundle product. IBM PA just sent us another email (also today), in which they say, in part, "Your purchased product, E007SLL DM GOLD TRANSACTION PROCESSING OFFERING PROCESSOR ANNUAL SW MAINT RNWL, currently does not have entitlement to Informix Dynamic Server 10." That sounds an awful lot like IBM is saying that IDS 10 will not be made available under the DM GOld BUndle product. But, maybe I'm just not understanding English, properly. After all, I'm sure OTC would insist, along with Prof. Higgins, that, "In America, they haven't spoken it for years." :-) However, they also include even more language that suggests it might be included later, at some unspecified date. We are both confused, and not at all satisfied with PA. So far as I know, we are the last agency in State of Alaska Government that is running Informix, down from at least 3 several years ago. IBM is very helpful in encouraging us to jump ship. Their techniques are very effective. THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THIS POST is to solicit from other PA Gold Bundle customers whether they have access to IDS 10 at their PA customer site. Thank you, PA GOld Bundle customers, for any comments. Regards, DG

This is a fresh response from IBM Passport Advantage: "We can guarantee that no other customer is recieving entitlement to IDS 10 from the gold bundle itself and that they would have to have entitlement to a standalone IDS purchase or another, non gold bundle, product that is entitling them to the download." IS THIS TRUE? DG

We now have confirmed from IBM that the Gold Bundle licensees are in the process of getting PA access to IDS 10. There has been a delay to some sort of technical difficulties, but work is in progress. I am old enough that the internet still seems amazing at times. What started out as a misunderstanding and escalated to a contract dispute was raised to an international incident and then resolved, all within hours, by means of internet (cdi and email). I wish to say a special thank you to John Dryburgh, an IBM manager in the UK, and also to Jason Johnson, an advisory rep in KS. It would be better for many IBM customers if support issues could be resolved by "cutting to the chase", as these two IBMers did. Thank you. Regards, David Grove, A/P & DBA Alaska Dept. Corrections Juneau, AK

It all gets back to being able to find the right person, and ask the right questions. IBM-at-large works on the principle that they don't offer up anything freely, you must ask, and ask the right question, or you don't get a response--or the right response. True to their heritage of computing, they transform their people into robots! note to self: maybe why Informix purchase went so well, a lot of Informix people behaved the same way, and still do. David E. Grove wrote: > We now have confirmed from IBM that the Gold Bundle licensees are in the > process of getting PA access to IDS 10. There has been a delay to some sort > of technical difficulties, but work is in progress. > > I am old enough that the internet still seems amazing at times. > > What started out as a misunderstanding and escalated to a contract dispute > was raised to an international incident and then resolved, all within hours, > by means of internet (cdi and email). > > I wish to say a special thank you to John Dryburgh, an IBM manager in the > UK, and also to Jason Johnson, an advisory rep in KS. > > It would be better for many IBM customers if support issues could be > resolved by "cutting to the chase", as these two IBMers did. > > Thank you. > > Regards, > > David Grove, A/P & DBA > Alaska Dept. Corrections > Juneau, AK > >