The dedicated console jockey is indeed a relic of the past. We depend on alerts that responsible vendors issue in advance of key expiration. One month should be sufficient for most products, but some customers may need longer. Our ISVs are universally responsive to our reaching out for short term extensions in cases where renewals get stalled in the finance gauntlet. Our automation products are set up to detect alerts and notify relevant people in one way or another. Customer choice.
One important proviso. A product must begin issuing alerts while it's running normally. That is, it's wholly insufficient to issue alerts only on a restart. That's less a problem now than it once was when vendors seemed to expect frequent IPLs. It's also helpful to keep a product running for a limited period in noisy 'panic mode' after official expiration. In many shops, the teckies have no power to issue POs but must deal the consequences of corporate sluggishness. . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 323-715-0595 Mobile 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lester, Bob Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 4:09 PM To: [email protected] Subject: (External):Re: Potential stupid question - MSUs Hi All, IMHO, console messages should be sufficient. Compuware, for example, makes them hard to miss! OTOH, the above depends on someone/something actually monitoring the console. That’s something that seems to be going away, and I think that's just plain wrong. Thanks! BobL -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 5:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Potential stupid question - MSUs [ EXTERNAL ] What should a vendor product do when it expires or whatever? That's a serious question. I'm a vendor product architect. We need the revenue -- those pesky programmer salaries and all that. We don't have the resources to audit every customer. Customers tend not to return vendor phone calls and e-mails unless the customer wants something from the vendor -- that is, assuming you can find a relevant contact at the customer. Not blaming the customers or anything -- just looking for guidance from a customer. What should the product do if not shut down. (It's already been squawking on the console for 30 days, but no one reads that, of course.) Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jesse 1 Robinson Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 3:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Potential stupid question - MSUs 'Dead wrong' seems a bit harsh. How about 'wounded wrong'? My claim that companies don't set out to cheat vendors is naïve because I never experienced it. Touche. But I did not waffle on the long-term consequences of T&C violation even if inadvertent. You eventually have to pay regardless. I stand by my example of PSF excession. How would it have been if our printers had stopped working in the middle of a 100K bill run at oh dark thirty on a Tuesday morning? What would that have done to our customer relationship with IBM? Yet we have had major business disruptions involving *other* vendors who see fit to shut down their products until someone negotiates a new contract. A lousy way to do business. . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 323-715-0595 Mobile 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Jaffe Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 11:18 AM To: [email protected] Subject: (External):Re: Potential stupid question - MSUs On 10/18/2017 10:42 AM, Charles Mills wrote: > And yes, with the complexity of modern 'plexes and licenses, we have at my > current employer had customer, ahem, misunderstandings. And those "misunderstandings" have a mixed-bag of outcomes. Some customers understand the concept of fair play, but in many cases the biggest lawyers win. If, as Skip's company did (BTW, Skip is DEAD WRONG on this issue), you "accidentally" use unlicensed IBM software, you will pay -- no question about it because IBM's lawyers are as big or bigger than yours are *AND* they own the operating system on which your business depends. But, when the customer's lawyer is bigger than the ISV's lawyer, some have a tendency to say, "Hey, Man. It was an accident and it won't happen again. It's really your fault that your software doesn't enforce the contract T&Cs properly. BTW, could you now spend money on a project to build protections into your software to help us police this?" -- Phoenix Software International Edward E. Jaffe 831 Parkview Drive North El Segundo, CA 90245 age: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
