-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Russell Witt Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 11:13 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Non-SMP/e packaging
I had a request from a client today, asking when CA-1 would stop being delivered in SMP/e format and would be a simple library-download. From my other talks with clients, I thought everyone wanted products delivered in SMP/e format. And this was the first time I had seen a request to go backwards to simply giving people a loadlib that they could refresh on a monthly/quarterly basis as required. This client pointed to a number of other products that do not use SMP/e and he felt SMP/e way to cumbersome to deal with (obviously, he was in charge of OEM products and not maintenance to the operating system itself). Still, I have to ask, would clients prefer to have an optional non-SMP/e installation procedure even when it means having to download a fresh copy of the product in order to apply maintenance? <snip> Perhaps what you should do is have a survey done of your client base and ask them. But going back a few weeks, there was a discussion about this very thing. Boole & Babbage used to provide (for AutoOPERATOR at least) two tapes. The first was the load and go. The remainder and onto the second tape was all the SMP/E files related to that load and go install. It was entirely the customer's choice to only lay down the executables and never put down the backing SMP/E files (basically, the SMP/E install was a copy of the install that was done at ole Drool & Babble that had been backed up to tape - everything was there). Customers could choose to re-order the system, and they would get it again, with all the maint already on it (all you had to do was wait until a "PUT" was produced and then order it - what you got was the customer install system with the PUT already applied). As I recall (this was up to 1993), we had customers who never installed the SMP/E components but only laid down the target files. One might wonder why they would do it that way when some HIPER maint might come out that they absolutely had to have (and yes, that happened a few times too). But, if the customers want things simple, and don't want to take up the space, and you allow them to let you do all their maint and then ship it to them to just lay down... Well, you might be able to market this and have a charge for it. Later, Steve Thompson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
