Hello? <vent>

[Glenn J. Koster, Sr.]

[These comments are not the comments of HP or of my employer - they are
strictly my opinion based on my experiences with Carter^Pertaine.]

Blair Combs wrote:

<snip>
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.
<end-snip>

I was a former R&D manager for a software company that wrote
administrative software for education.  The sole platform of choice was
the HP 3000.  Because of repeated requests from users asking for a
recommendation for a 4GL report writer, we evaluated a number of
alternatives, including early versions of Speedware.  This evaluation
occured in the 1988-1989 time frame.  The end result was that we
recommended Powerhouse to our entire user community.  The net sales to
Cognos at that time were approximately 85 new customers as a result of
this recommendation.  During following three years, Cognos continued to
raise support prices for these clients to such a degree that most were
paying more in support than they paid for the original license.  

Can you guess what happened?  Yup - every one of those customers have
now left the Cognos fold and followed the software vendor to the
Speedware platform.  Cognos lost a prime partner and the entire customer
base of that partner - and they still didn't see the handwriting on the
wall regarding pricing.  Consequently, I don't see that they ever will.

In their defense, I must say that one of the major factors in their
pricing policy has been the fall of loonie.  Cognos built a competitive
company on the strength of the Canadian dollar from a Canadian base and
build a good reputation south of the border.  Unfortunately, the loonie
has seen a collapse of approximately 40% in the last 6-7 years, right in
line with the rise in costs to their US customer base.  Maybe there it
is not as easy to be multi-national as some would have us believe.  

Whatever the case, I must agree that if Cognos is to survive (and
thrive) as the HP 3000 makes a glorious comeback, they must act quickly
and decisively.

Glenn
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