I'd give IBM a call. According to what you've said, around 1995 they upgraded to OS/390 V1R3, with a plan to discontinue the mainframe around 1997. Yet after 13 years, they're still on the mainframe, and still have yet another 2 year plan to get off the mainframe.
I think it's an understatement to say they have not managed their IT infrastructure well. (And where there's smoke there's usually fire: if they haven't managed their mainframe well, they probably aren't managing the rest of their IT particularly well, either.) There's a (monthly) cash flow associated with their mainframe, and that cash flow is set at 1995 prices. Fifteen years later, mainframe-related cash flows are different (almost always lower), and of course functionality and business utility are much higher. Unfortunately they've already lost a decade-plus of those benefits, but better late than never. I think they have excellent evidence by now that their rolling 2-year plans aren't working at all. So I'd advise them to get sensible and manage better, for their own benefit. At the very least, they ought to enjoy the cash flow benefits for the next two years. ....Give IBM a call. It doesn't hurt and can probably help. - - - - - Timothy Sipples Resident Architect (Based in Singapore) STG Value Creation and Complex Deals IBM Growth Markets E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
