ROI (was PowerHouse.Net)

[Edis, Bob]

G'day John

I'm sorry if I implied Cognos was totally upfront (which it isn't) or "fair"
in its product pricing.  I meant to say that comparing Cognos with other
software vendors and products is hard due to obscure pricing information.
Cognos is no different from most other software vendors in how it prices its
products (generally speaking).  Microsoft has moved to a new pricing
structure with the .NET products that is really confusing.  It will now be
based on factors such as volume (cost) (E.g. >USD250K), processor (type and
quantity) and number of seats (users).

I think we are getting into a philosophical bind.  On one hand many believe
in "survival of the fittest", others believe in "variety is the spice of
life".  MS now "owns" 85% of the office automation market, 20%+ database
market, 50%+ development software market, and so on.  The arguments of some
would say that competitors to MS should die/be killed off in a survival of
the fittest strategy.  But its not that simple.  MS got where it is through
a multitude of factors none being because it had the "best" product.
Survival of the fittest idealists believe there is not other/better way to
do something and that through an evolutionary process all development
software will be from the same vendor and possibly the same version, all
software will run on only one machine and one operating system.

This attitude exists today (and for a long time) in Nationalism.  People
from one country (e.g. USA) cannot comprehend that there can be another way
of thinking than how they think.  This leads to frustration, trade
embargoes, bad communication, war, etc.

We need to be more open in our attitudes, towards both Cognos AND its
alternatives.

Regards,
Blue

-----Original Message-----
From: John Pearce [mailto:jpearce@rmi.net]
Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 9:01 AM
To: powerh-l@lists.swau.edu
Subject: Re: ROI (was PowerHouse.Net)


At 10:02 AM 6/7/2002 -0500, "Edis, Bob" <BEdis@usbnc.org> wrote:
>Costs are an arbitrary and confusing issue.  I don't believe you can
>accuse/blame any of Cognos' sales of ADT products on cost alone.

Blue,

My employer bought a HP 3000 Series 58 and PowerHouse in 1986.  In 1990/91, 
the Series 58 was replaced with a 3000 Series 937.  Cognos gave us a 
trade-in value for PH on the Series 58 against the cost for the 937.  When 
we bought a 3000 N-class last August, there was no trade-in value for the 
937 software.  The only option was to buy the product again.

IMO this was taking advantage of the installed customer.  I've never heard 
any good explanation for the pricing.  Did Cognos have to do a re-write to 
implement PH on the A/N-Class and needed the money to cover the development 
cost?  I don't think so.  Because of their "buy it again" position, we 
dropped the PH Architect product.

Also, just in case you're wondering, this isn't a "sour grapes" 
situation.  We needed the boost in processing power over the 937 so we 
would have bought hardware anyway.  Had we known in August, 2001 that the 
November announcement was coming, we would probably have bought a used 9x9 
box rather than the N-Class box.

John
------------------------------------------------------------------
John Pearce  <jpearce@rmi.net>	| Bethesda Management Company
Speaking for only myself		| Colorado Springs, CO  USA


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