Re: Tech Support

In article <8787@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM (Jim Gordon) writes: >X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1090> > >Greg Hogg writes that his complaint with Informix is not that Tech >Support doesn't provide the support he expects in *most* cases. But >that he is forced to pay for it to gain the upgrades. It seems that >he also states that he is prepared to pay between 25 and 50% to get >the upgrades without Tech Support. > >Now the following is based on the Maintenance charge being 18% a year. >This is what it was the last time I checked if this is out of date I >apologise. I am also assuming that in most ongoing system development >and application upgrade environments there will be a requirement to >upgrade at least every 2 years. Considering the number of bug, >feature and speed releases produced by Informix over the last four >years this doesn't seem too unreasonable. > Your figures are a bit out of date. Informix has just changed their upgrade policies. You still need to purchase maintenance, at about 20% of the purchase price per year, but now you don't get free upgrades. That 20% per year gives you the privilege of paying 25% for new versions. (Remember, this is on top of a 50% penalty for buying maintenance after it has expired). Plus, the major releases that Informix is planning for this year are *not* considered upgrades, they are considered to be new products, and not eligible for these low-cost upgrades. I admit these policies are really hard to believe, but before everyone says that I am making this up, let me state that I have spoken to my sales rep, her boss, the local Informix tech rep and the head of Informix customer support trying to get a more reasonable solution to my upgrade problem. >Now in this case the upgrade charge for the products is 36% - just in >the bottom half of Greg's range. Plus for this you get Tech Support >thrown in free! Many companies may do bug fix release upgrades even >more often so the deal gets cheaper. From this it can be seen that >the deal is a trade off if you are going to upgrade less often say >every 3 years it will cost you 54% (Just over the percentage for >Oracle upgrades according to Greg). This calculation does work out nicely when Informix does come out with major upgrades on a regular basis. This is not necessarily the case. I purchased the MS-DOS version of Informix when it first came about 5(?) years ago. I think that there has been one minor update since then. Tech support for this product would certainly have been a waste of money if upgrades were a factor. > >I'm not trying to say that a fee for straight upgrades is a bad idea. >It would probably be good for some people. But to me the maintenance >deal doesn't seem that bad considering the above. > >Cheers - Jim > ><*Standard Disclaimers, Opinions are my own, etc, etc *> >-------------------------------------------------------------------- >Name: Jim Gordon Internet: jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM >Company: DHL Systems Inc Phone: (415) 358-5911 (Work) >Address: 1700 S. Amphlett Blvd. (415) 882-9728 (Home) > San Mateo, CA 94402 Fax: (415) 571-6429 >-------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- | Gardner Pomper Pomper Software Design, Inc | | mail: uunet!psd!gardner (703)450-5114 voice (VA) | | CompuServe: 74005,636 (717)755-5194 voice (PA) |