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-< The Digital way of working >-
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Note 3006.57 What We Need To Do, given losses... 57 of 145
CADSYS::CADSYS::BENOIT 55 lines 22-APR-1994 09:37:33.38
-< I'm looking for some help >-
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Hello,
I'm looking for some help. My wife works for a software company in Cambridge.
Her company has a collective marketing agreement with Digital. The company
has a proprietary software suite that is sold to financial institutions. The
software runs on both Digital and IBM platforms. They don't really influence
which platform to run on, but configure the system once the choice is made.
They will be holding the annual user's meeting at the end of May. There will
be five hardware vendors there to present their equipment. Digital, IBM,
Kodak, and two optical disk storage companies will be given booths to
demonstrate hardware, as well as, a half hour slot to give a presentation to
customers. Digital and IBM are the CPU vendors, the others sell peripheral
products for the software.
IBM will be presenting it's RS6000 UNIX boxes. Digital will feature a couple
of ALPHA AXP systems in their booth, but has chosen to present some
re-engineering software that runs on INTEL based 486 Digital PCs. My wife's
company was very surprised to hear what the Digital representative chose to
present to their customers. There are a few reasons for their surprise. First;
the software we are presenting is commercially available for a fraction of the
cost that Digital sells it for. Second; my wife's company sells a similar
product (they don't really care that the software overlaps, just surprised).
The third and most surprising thing is; there will be representatives from over
100 banks in the United States and Europe, include the ten largest banks in
the U.S. in attendance...WHY ARE WE NOT PUSHING ALPHA, ALPHA, ALPHA!!!!!
My wife's company has already planned to port to ALPHA AXP by the end of the
year; so this is not the problem. There are only five vendors to show products
(ie. plenty of time for each potential customer to visit); is this too few a
number of vendors to make it interesting to us as a company? There won't be
a direct opportunity to sell equipment at the show; is this the problem?
There are a number of other interesting facts that are not for this public
forum, but I would be able to share off-line. So where do I get help with this?
Give me a name. Give me a phone number. I've already spent far too much time
with this problem, this is not my job (but I feel it is my responsibility). I
walked around Hudson for a day talking with everyone I knew to get the name of
someone to help me. I either got: I don't know, or a false lead. I came close
once. I had my old cost center manager call someone he knew in marketing and
sales. He left a message, the sales and marketing person's secretary said the
person to talk to was in a meeting, but would call me at 4:00 last Thursday,
April 14th. I left a meeting early to be by my phone to take the call....it's
Friday the 22nd....I'm still waiting.
Maybe I don't know all the facts. If I don't, I sure would like to be
enlightened.
So...is there anyone out there that can help me? I can be reached at DTN
225-5050. I will be here most of the day. I can be reached with mail on
CADSYS::BENOIT. If you send mail, and I don't have time to talk today, I will
send you my home phone number. We can talk this weekend. I didn't put 12 years
into this job to watch it slip away.
Michael T. Benoit
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| <<< HUMANE::DISK$NOTES:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DIGITAL.NOTE;1 >>>
-< The Digital way of working >-
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Note 3039.55 Digital in every computer store! 55 of 56
CADSYS::CADSYS::BENOIT 82 lines 2-MAY-1994 12:34:29.41
-< some reply's to a few back...long note warning >-
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re. 3039.49
�In this conference there are lots of folks with a good grasp of our company
�and potential pieces of solutions to our current bleeding attrition - moral,
�selling focus, cost containment, ad nausium. Implementing good ideas would
�require (pardon the airy-fairy west coast sound of this ;-) empowering the
�individuals in the company to believe they can make a difference and that
�they do have control over the direction of the company and subsequently
�their own future within it. The trouble is that many of us are terrified
�to try to make that difference, having beaten ourselves bloody on some of
�these issues just to see what is widely perceived as politics and cronyism
�be the real forces behind the flailing "re-invent Digital" programs.
I put a note in a few weeks back (note 3006.57). Please take a look at it.
Since I put that note in this is how far I've gotten. Three people are going
to call me back. Three people never answered my mail. One person called, and
was assigning it to a sub-ordinate (that person is on of the three that hasn't
called). Two people called and had to know the sales' rep name. I told them
that they would have to look it up themselves (because I really couldn't get my
wife involved on her end). They told me that it was not possible (funny thing
though, I was able to look up the sales office in VTX, given only my wife's
companies name). So you can feel as "empowered" as you'd like, I feel like a
fool on a fool's errand.
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