Passport Advantage withdrawal

It appears that my problems with Passport Advantage are mainly caused by the fact that the PA system is designed to assist end-users and not the distribution channel. As a support specialist I often need to get hold of copies of media in a hurry and the PA system was doing a very good job of providing this facility. I don't know what the politics are between IBM and our distributor - nor do I care. What I do care about is the image this gives to our end-users. We are fighting to keep these users as Informix users and anything which delays the efficient support of these users is more ammunition for the anti-Informix lobby. Please IBM can we have a facility whereby IBM authorised partners can get copies of software quickly. regards Malcolm sending to informix-list

"malcolm weallans" <malcolm.iiug@btopenworld.com> wrote in message news:1111689642.5871998502f0ce3ab9082bbc3bf05fa2@teranews... The official answer you will be given - and we are sent this message in endless communications from IBM - is that the "ValuePackage is key to doing business with IBM". This is a package you, the partner, can buy and it gives software downloads, including Informix and You Pass We Pay rebates for training. You're entitled to use some of the software to "Run your own Business" and some of this, eg Tivoli for backups, can be quite useful. Personally I don't buy it out of pure, blind, cut-of-your-nose-to-spite-your-face, principle. The charge - US$2,000, - is peanuts to the CSFs, Morses (and of course Panaceas :-)) of this world but is a lot of money to smaller BPs. And if it's so bloody "key to doing business with IBM" why don't they give it away free? I don't see why I should pay to get the ability to get my media for my custoemrs: we're actually all supposed to be on the same side ...