From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager on behalf of Kauffman, Tom I second that. In general, my approach is that any product the vendor is too ashamed to post pricing for is a product not worth considering.
There is no issue of "shame" here. Buying software at the enterprise level is not like going to the grocery store, where the price of apples is the same for everyone. Resellers offer many levels of pricing to their customers, depending upon the relationship with the customer, whether IBM auspices are involved, what is being bought, and what kind of "deal" is in place. I did a year's work for a customer that bought a tubload of Tivoli software (reportedly $250,000USD at full retail price) for virtually nothing--but the customer had to buy a year of my services to close the deal. If you post a "standard" price publicly, that sends a message (at least in American culture) that the price is firm and not subject to dicker. In the IT world, *nothing* is not subject to dicker. -- Mark Stapleton ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Senior consultant
