| I do not know what arrangements BEA has to support its partners in a way that is different than it
supports it customers. BEA does have a support service, similar to the CSC arrangement Digital has,
but, obviously, smaller. BEA is ramping up that support operation to be able to service the customers
who purchase support from BEA. Digital will continue to service the DECmessageQ customers and, from
the engineering point of view, these will be parallel operations that we will support equally. Right
now, obviously, all support is done by Digital. Over time, we expect this will shift and, in some
period of time (1 year, 2 years?) the bulk of support will probably come through the BEA support
channel. If and when Digital decides to stop providing direct support on its own is unknown; that is
clearly based on business realities (like how soon customers stop paying Digital to provide support).
As to other "partner" support, such as the consulting design, potential futures, and other such
discussions that go on in this notesfile, I have no idea how BEA will do that. The person who would
normally drive that, I would assume, will be the BEA MessageQ Product Manager; there is no one in that
position at this point. I know that Digital is maintaining a DECmessageQ (and ObjectBroker) focus
through the group that Eric Mintz is managing; I do not know what their actual charter and deliverables
are.
If the existing notesfile models cannot be maintained, I do not know what we will set up. However,
we will almost certainly parallel whatever BEA has already set up for its other products, rather than
develop a new mechanism/model or establish one specially for Digital. We strongly believe that the
best way to support Digital is to maintain the active notesfiles with Digital and BEA MessageQ Engineering
participation. If that is something Digital does not wish to continue, Digital will have to get in
the boat with all other BEA partners (HP already, more coming) and use whatever support arrangements
are/will be set up that way.
|
|
I do not know what arrangements BEA has to support its partners in a way
that is different than it supports it customers. BEA does have a support
service, similar to the CSC arrangement Digital has, but, obviously,
smaller. BEA is ramping up that support operation to be able to service
the customers who purchase support from BEA. Digital will continue to
service the DECmessageQ customers and, from the engineering point of view,
these will be parallel operations that we will support equally. Right
now, obviously, all support is done by Digital. Over time, we expect
this will shift and, in some period of time (1 year, 2 years?) the bulk
of support will probably come through the BEA support channel. If and
when Digital decides to stop providing direct support on its own is
unknown; that is clearly based on business realities (like how soon
customers stop paying Digital to provide support).
As to other "partner" support, such as the consulting design, potential
futures, and other such discussions that go on in this notesfile, I
have no idea how BEA will do that. The person who would normally drive
that, I would assume, will be the BEA MessageQ Product Manager; there
is no one in that position at this point. I know that Digital is
maintaining a DECmessageQ (and ObjectBroker) focus through the group
that Eric Mintz is managing; I do not know what their actual charter and
deliverables are.
If the existing notesfile models cannot be maintained, I do not know what
we will set up. However, we will almost certainly parallel whatever BEA
has already set up for its other products, rather than develop a new
mechanism/model or establish one specially for Digital. We strongly
believe that the best way to support Digital is to maintain the active
notesfiles with Digital and BEA MessageQ Engineering participation. If
that is something Digital does not wish to continue, Digital will have
to get in the boat with all other BEA partners (HP already, more
coming) and use whatever support arrangements are/will be set up that way.
|