Hello? <vent>

[Blair Combs]

John,

Ditto.

Cognos has set a strategy that makes their software more expensive than most of
the hardware it runs on, even in the PC arena with Impromptu and Powerplay and
all their add-ons that run another $500 each. Heaven forbid they would consider
adding features to their current products. What does it matter. As an
educational institution we can barely afford their Powerhouse development
software much less their PC products.

And yet it does matter to me. I believe they are now setting their pricing on
the Powerhouse Web product. When asked at the Cognos User Conference in Atlanta
France Peters said the price would be fair and reasonable, especially for
current Powerhouse customers. 

At HPWorld they seemed to do an about face and when asked about pricing and
concerns that they would follow the trend to price the product too high for
everyone but large corporations with deep pockets, they responded, "We are not a
charity. We have to please our stockholders." Great attitude, huh.

I for one have already started to look at alternatives. I hate the thought of
moving away from Powerhouse as we have been a dedicated Powerhouse site for over
15 years but with limited funds I have no choice. We been asking them for years
to develop a web solution. Now I fear that we will not be able to afford the
product as it nears release. 

Speedware offers a very good web development product for the HP3000 for a
reasonable price. I say this not to promote their product but rather with a hope
that it may not land on deaf ears at Cognos.

The Cognos attitude seems to come from Alan Rottenberg, Senior Vice President of
marketing. At the Cognos User Conference he addressed a question from the
audience, a question that was on the minds of probably most of those in
attendance, that asked why Cognos pricing of so high and out of line with the
rest of the software industry. He simply stated that Cognos pricing was not high
and was right in line with the industry. I'm not sure what industry he was
talking about ;) .

I would suggest that as a community of Powerhouse users we may want to attempt
to express our concerns, especially with the pricing of Powerhouse Web. We need
to let them know our concerns. I suggest a small email campaign. The email
addresses below may be a good place to start. Please be cordial, rational, and
non-threatening.

mailto:frances.peters@cognos.com - Director, Product Management
mailto:ed.shepherdson@cognos.com - Director, 4GL Products
mailto:alan.rottenberg@cognos.com - Vice President, Marketing (Why not?)
mailto:rob.ashe@cognos.com - Vice President, Products
mailto:ron.zambonini@cognos.com - President and CEO (Go for it!)

Blair Combs
(My opinions are my own)

******************

John Backus wrote:
 
> Given the vent of a couple of postings on the HP3000-list today, which
> are concerning Cognos' upgrade policies, I wish to express my sadness
> that Cognos continues to 'bite the hands that feed it'.
> 
> In June of this year I posted:
> 
> I have been working with HP3000 MPE systems for about 15 years now.
> Cognos' PowerHouse products like QTP,QUIZ,QUICK,QDD,PDL have been
> encountered at several organizations along the way.  I think PowerHouse
> is a good product.  Good products usually command a good price and this
> is fair.
> 
> Maybe I am wrong but doesn't Cognos have a reputation for setting the price
> of these products at such high prices (especially upgrade fees) that they
> make their products prohibitive to many customers?  I really regret this
> and wonder why this is done.  It seems to me that this sort of marketing
> was proven flawed by such real life cases as Microsoft VS Apple.  Apple had
> (has?) a superior OS that was priced much to high in comparison to
> Microsoft, Microsoft got marketshare and the good things that go with it,
> including a lot of profit.
> 
> Here goes some wishful thinking.  I wish Cognos would increase their
> marketshare in the HP3000 MPE market by making the pricing much more
> reasonable.  This would also contribute to the renaissance that HP3000 MPE
> is currently experiencing.
> 
> Does Cognos plan on doing anything along these lines?  Perhaps the same
> request can be made for DEC, IBM and other Cognos platforms too.  I am
> specifically interested in HP3000 MPE though.
> 
> ...
> 
>   Well, here we are 5 months later and apparently things have not
> changed.  Cognos continues to price themselves out of loyal
> customers.  For the short term this may be a profitable strategy but
> I really doubt that this will win out in the long run.
> 
> Will Cognos endorse an HP3000 Renaissance?  In this area, I suppose
> the answer is, "No".
> 
> John Backus
> My opinion only and not my employer's, thank you.
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