Conference 7.286::digital

    
    Well, if you like the Larry Ellison ad, you'd have to love the
    companion effort -- Jim Gray of Microsoft also touting AT&T Servers.
    
    He used to be with Digital, of course, up until about a year ago, but
    now he's pitching AT&T servers to run Microsoft back-office software.
    
    The larger point may be that AT&T, whose computer operations have
    attracted notice for bleeding red ink in copious volume, still thinks
    that paying for an ad in Fortune is a good investment.
    
    Digital?? Aren't they the guys who make watches?? 
    
    It really is astounding that we can have top executives saying on the
    one hand that this is becoming a commodity business, margins are razor
    thin and thus the need to get lean and mean (mean, I think, is easier than
    lean, but that's just my $0.02), while on the other hand we are just
    about invisible to the world at large.
    
    

                          
And in a Sequent press release ...
    
  :
    
  Lawrence J. Ellison, chairman and CEO of Oracle Corp., the  world's
largest supplier of software for information management,  said, "NUMA-Q
represents a breakthrough in hardware technology that  could be applied to
large and complex data warehouse environments as  well as mission-critical
online transaction processing applications. Sequent's distributed and
clustering approach with NUMA-Q  architecture will provide a strong platform
for Oracle's database and applications products.  Oracle on NUMA-Q is
expected to enable  customers to implement multiterabyte databases as well
as support  tens of thousands of users."
  
    fwiw,
    	Hein.
    
    complete text in:
    
              <<< KENT::PUBLIC:[NOTES$LIBRARY]TURBOLASER.NOTE;1 >>>
                                -< TurboLaser >-
================================================================================
Note 172.12                          Sequent                            12 of 12
MSAM03::ROBERTLIM                                   241 lines  17-OCT-1995 16:54
                 -< Sequent's next generation 250 processors! >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    If your customers worry about this respond with the Larry Ellison
    Oracle video: Unleashing the SuperPower, where he says Oracle are
    buying 8400's to run their internal systems.

    Personally I don't really see the issue...  Oracle has a lock on their
    segment of the market, they want to make THEIR customers happy with
    THEIR (different) brand of CPU.  Why not say Good Things about various
    brands of CPUs that Oracle runs on?  As long (sez he, crossing his
    fingers) as he doesn't say that Oracle runs faster on system X rather
    than system Y where that ain't true...
    

    With all due respect, I believe the Noters in .3 and .4 missed the
    boat.  It isn't a question of offering a videotape to our customers of
    Larry Ellison saying AlphaServers are great, or that Ellison might want
    to tout a lot of vendors equipment.  The point is that AT&T feels
    justified in spending money to try to adjust customers mindsets to think
    Oracle and AT&T, AT&T and Oracle, while Digital does not.  We have to
    get onto an aggressive marketing kick which is all pervasive, unless we
    seriously want to be relegated to the scrapheap of history.  
    
    How many people have seen the AT&T advertisements?  Between the
    magazines I have seen, and those I haven't, I would estimate millions. 
    Now how many videotapes of Larry Ellison extoling Digital can you pass
    out, and then realistically expect customers to sit down and take the
    time to watch?
    
    Chuck

    The latest numbers that I read said that AT&T has 41% of the
    SPP/MPP market.  Since Oracle sells the Oracle Parallel Server, it
    would be "incredibly stupid" of Ellison to ignore the market reality of
    AT&T's position in the SPP/MPP market.
    
    He did not get where he is by being STUPID.

    Talk is cheap. Ask Larry on what hardware he's betting his own
    business. Oracle Corporation already runs their Office systems on
    AlphaServer 8400, and within a few months they'll be running their
    financials on Alpha systems as well. 

    Why aren't we seeing an ad with Larry leaning against a turbolaser?
    That's literally what's he's doing.

    Lisa

    RE .7
    
    Exactly.  Heeeellllllooooooo Marketing are you out there anywhere
    today?  
    
    If we are really into this push/pull strategy with our business
    partners then we best get on with the pull part, you know advertise
    with our Business Partner's like Larry.  I'm sure he would entertain it
    I'm just wondering if anyone in our Enterprise Servers Marketing
    Initiative is asking him to do it?   
    
    And as far as video tapes are concerned why don't we just send a few of
    them direct out to the CIO's CFO's and CEO's of the Fortune 1000 along
    with a personal letter from Digital saying that we prepared this
    videotape and feel an obligation to share it with you on behalf of safe
    and profitable computing.  How much would that cost, peanuts.  
    
    Then perhaps we could follow up with a phone call by a rep. and a V.P. of
    Digital (lord knows we have a few, V.P.'s that is) and say, "Hi, we're
    following up with you regarding the tape and we would like to come out
    to see you and explain that the only Responsible Choice is to buy
    Digital Alpha systems running your mission critical business 'cause
    we're going to save you millions of dollars in the process which will 
    make your stockholders happy.  When can we see you?"
    
    C'mon let's geton with it already.  Where's the action.  Where's the
    talk in out customers faces.  Sales is doing it everyday, where the
    heck is out marketing effort??
    
    Mav

    
    AT&T's NUMA system sounds like a good system...  The DEC folks that
    were working on NUMA software now work for DNC at Microsoft.... 
    Let me guess what they are working on for WNT? 

    Thx, .5 & the others.  I see the point I missed, you're 100% right on!
    

    
    re the 'Videotape'.
    
    In the account I work with, it has already allowed us to give Sequent
    and IBM a seriously tweaked nose...
    
    Sit your punter down in front of a TV, play the video. Watch the
    reaction. (Against Sequent, the customer was ready to buy a big
    Sequent, to run Oracle Financials.. when he saw the video he said:
    "... oh Sh**, I've got to make sure I buy the best solution, and if
    Larry Ellison is saying this...". Get the picture ? Oh, and then offer
    a benchmark. When we benchmark, we win.
    
    And, at the final presentation, we got the local Oracle Sales guy (who
    actually didn't give a stuff, as long as he sold licences), and kicked
    him off the fence by asking him to comment on Larry's statements, in
    front of the customer.. Slam Dunk, I believe is the US phrase.
    
    The video, and the fact that Oracle are buying our kit is *good
    advertising*, just go use it. And you don't need that many videos. Send
    one to the CIO of your customer as a start.
    
    Oh, and Larry had shaved on our video. Looks quite scruffy with the
    AT&T ad. So go for the clean cut approach.
    
    
    AW

    
    And from an Oracle perspective:
    
    Digital's senior executives are making testimonials on how great our
    Alpha products work together with Sybase, Informix, Software AG and
    Microsoft (to name 4 companies that are considered to be competitors
    from an Oracle point-of-view).

>    And as far as video tapes are concerned why don't we just send a few of
>    them direct out to the CIO's CFO's and CEO's of the Fortune 1000 along
>    with a personal letter from Digital saying that we prepared this
>    videotape and feel an obligation to share it with you on behalf of safe
>    and profitable computing.  How much would that cost, peanuts.  
    
We did this in Canada! I paid to have the tape edited down to 20+ minutes 
and we mailed to the top Fortune 200 companies back in June/July. Also, we 
mailed their VPs, and techies with the white papers - all in a 3 phase 
campaign. We received a 12.5% hit ratio. Outstanding by anybody's Direct 
Marketing standard. We added a 1-800 number to the end of the tape as well.

I work for Enterprise Solutions in Canada - and the U.S. is re-using my 
tape with a U.S. 1-800. It's my understanding that this campaign is in the 
works for you folks. In Canada, we sent a joint letter from our 
President and the President of Oracle Canada. Leads are currently being 
worked.

Marketing works - if you just do it!

Mario

Yeah - too bad our corporate marketing group won't do it on their own.

				Steve

    re last,
    
    at risk of ratholing...
    
    There is some *great* material about:
    
    'Beyond the Mainframe' handbook.
    
    Wall Street Journal Europe magazine on Multimedia (loads of good stuff
    on technology generally, plus superb ad supplements from Digital
    Europe.
    
    Digital Today (I kid you not ! The new global edition was obviously
    meant for customers, and we drop them off with senior customer
    management. (..uh oh.. I'll probably get in trouble..)).
    
    For my account we do our 'own' marketing, via materials such as above.
    Works fine too. NOR on the up !
    
    

    RE: the last few.  These are great ideas that generate territory based
    leads and uncover opportunities.  This is excellent creative work that
    gets us in front of prospects and allows us to present and close
    business.
    
    The Greyhawk said it somewhere in these hallowed halls of the Digital
    notes file:
    
    		Marketings job is the creative force behind generating demand 
    		for your goods and services.
    
    		Sales job is the science of presenting and closing the
    		solution to the prospect and collecting the profit.
    
    We absolutely do not want sales people soley doing marketing nor
    vice-versa.  But what we absolutely do *NEED* is for this corporation
    to get off it's ass and put together a marketing message that allows me
    to walk into my local hardware store and sell Alpha's.  It's called
    pull or demand generation or brand recoginition or just plain ole'
    Marketing 101.  Heck if they don't know how to go about doing it then
    refer to the Bible on Marketing called Marketing Management, Analysis,
    Planning, Implementation and Control by Philip Kotler of Northwestern
    University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.  A few Chapters would 
    be a good start:  Core Concepts of Marketing-needs, wants, demands,
    products, value, cost, Satisifaction, exchange, transactions and
    relationships, markets, marketing management, company orientation
    toward the marketplace, buying behavior, strategic planning and
    business unit identification, analyzing business markets and
    organizational buying behavior, designing effective advertising
    programs, designing direct marketing, sales promotion and public
    relations programs, managing the salesforce, organizing and
    implementing the marketing plans, and evaluating and controlling
    marketing performance.
    
    If someone could just map this out and then go off and implement
    through the entire lifecycle of marketing and promotion I'd have a
    field day.  It would be like selling life boats to Captain John Smith
    of the Titanic.
    
    Mav

    Excuse me....
    
    But how do we get our hands on said tape of Larry Ellison?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Pat Campbell
    Program Manager

    VTX IR, document ID VI5655:

    Larry Ellison's April 11, 1995 Speech Video        

    DATE POSTED: 12-MAY-1995    LAST REVIEW: 12-MAY-1995    LENGTH: 0022

    Time Larry Ellison's April 11 Speech.  This video contains the entire
    presentation delivered by Larry Ellison, President and CEO of Oracle
    Corporation at the AlphaServer 8400 Product Introduction.  Mr. Ellison
    reinforces his support of the AlphaServer platform as the premier
    database engine for users today. He describes what Oracle has done to
    optimize their product set to take advantage of the AlphaServer 8400
    Very Large Memory capability and 64-bit architecture. Mr. Ellison also
    endorses the partnership between Digital and Oracle and delivers a very
    strong testimonial that would be very effective in certain customer
    selling situations for those accounts that are interested in Oracle
    products running on Digital's AlphaServer platform. 

    Lisa

>    The rest of the ad goes on to speak to why AT&T's WorldMark Servers are
>    the best thing since sliced bread across Uni, SMP and MPP platforms
>    running Oracle.
    
    Well, AT&T may make nice telephones, but their computers are now in
    FIFTH place in TPC-C results.  Turbolaser gets 9414.06 tmpC @
    $316/tpmC; 2.8x the performance of AT&T's best at just over half the
    cost (0.54x).
    


     +-------------+ TM
     | | | | | | | |
     |d|i|g|i|t|a|l|      I N T E R O F F I C E    M E M O R A N D U M
     | | | | | | | |
     +-------------+


     TO: Distribution			 DATE: October 27, 1995
					 FROM: Lee Allison
                                         DEPT: CSD Performance Group
                                         LOC : ZK02-3/M31
					 DTN : 381-0343 
                                         TEL:  603-881-0343
                                         ENET: [email protected] or
                                               PERFOM::CSGPERF


     SUBJECT: World's Fastest Single-Node TPC-C from Digital and Oracle!

     *********************************************************************

     Digital's AlphaServer 8400 5/300 8 CPUs C/S   9414.06 tpmC  $316/tpmC 

     *********************************************************************

     Digital's AlphaServer 8400 achieved the fastest single node TPC-C mark 
     using Oracle7 under Digital UNIX. The following table shows Digital's 
     TPC-C leadership position in the industry!

     ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
               System, Database, Operating                       Price
     Company   System, TP Monitor                   Throughput   Performance 
                                                      (tpmC)      ($/tpmC)
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Digital   AlphaServer 8400 5/300 8 CPUs C/S    9414.06      $316
               Oracle7, Digital UNIX, TUXEDO
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     HP        HP 9000 T500 12 CPUs C/S             5369.68      $535
               Oracle7, HP-UX, TUXEDO
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Sun       SPARCcenter 2000E 16 CPUs C/S        4544.60      $396
               Sybase, Solaris, TUXEDO
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     HP        HP 9000 Model K410 C/S               3809.46      $364
               Oracle7, HP-UX, TUXEDO
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     AT&T      AT&T 3555/4-XP 10 CPUs C/S           3312.70      $587
               INFORMIX, AT&T UNIX SVR4,
               TopEnd
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     IBM       IBM RS/6000 PowerPC J30 8 CPUs C/S   3119.16      $349
               DB2, AIX, TUXEDO
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     AT&T      AT&T WorldMark 4100S C/S             2692.00      $489
               INFORMIX, AT&T SVR4, TopEnd
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     HP        HP 9000 K400 C/S                     2616.20      $550
               INFORMIX, HP-UX, TUXEDO
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
     You can copy the Executive Summary (2 pages) from
     PERFOM::CSG_TPC:ALPHA_8400_8_TPCC_EXEC_SUMM_UNIX_ORACLE.PS
    
     You can also ftp it from perfom.zko.dec.com. Log on as anonymous; no 
     password required. cd tpc. get alpha_8400_8_tpcc_exec_summ_unix_oracle.ps

     And, a summary of published TPC results is posted biweekly in
     PERFOM::CSG_TPC. The most recent file is TPC_RESULTS_951020.PS (so
     Digital's industry-leading AlphaServer 8400 TPC-C isn't 
     shown, yet).

     The intended audience is Digital's sales, sales support, OEMs, 
     VARs, distributors, partners, and customers who need to know TPC 
     Benchmark C results for the AlphaServer 8400 5/300. The Executive Summary
     report may be given to Digital's external customers.

     We welcome your questions and comments. Please send any to PERFOM::CSGPERF
     or [email protected]
    

Just out of interest, has anyone tried benchmarking a TurboLaser running
Informix rather than Oracle-7?  I seem to recall hearing a while ago that
Informix on Alpha was rated as being several times faster than Oracle, but
haven't really heard much since.  It'd be interesting to know...

Chris.

>Just out of interest, has anyone tried benchmarking a TurboLaser running
>Informix rather than Oracle-7?  I seem to recall hearing a while ago that

    Yes. Send mail to Martin Ringel at OSLMR::OSL09::MARTINR, or see his
    postings in the BELFST::ORACLE_ON_UNIX notes conference. 

    Lisa

"That's pure Larry Ellison," the Katt said to himself. Sybase, it seems, 
was ready to hype its new System 11 database running on DEC Alpha servers. 
A week before the big System 11 announcement, which went down last Monday, 
DEC calls up the Sybase folks and tells them they can't say anything publicly 
about how System 11 benchmarks on DEC's highiron. Sybasians later learned that 
DEC's contract with Oracle about benchmarking on Alpha platforms prohibits anyone
else from discussing it publicly. Pure Larry, chuckled the Katt.

What a wonderfull deal we have struck here!!!  We must be geniuses!!

Larry can hype his software on EVERY server in the universe, but we can't say
anything about another database on ours!!  Now THAT's good thinking!!

-Stephen

    How could a contract between DEC and Oracle be binding upon Sybase?
    It might prevent _us_ from talking about it, but it can't possibly
    constrain Sybase from announcing the benchmarks themselves, can it?
    
    Dave

    I've read the contract....and know what we can and cannot do and when.
    Spencer's got a good source.
    Mark
    

    Is there a cover memo/letter that goes with the video?  I have 12
    videos and don't want to reinvent the wheel here.  Does anyone have a
    pointer or can they post a sample letter here?
    
    Thanks!