Conference 7.286::digital

4735.0. "Cringely: "Another depressing chapter in the saga."" by ATLANT::SCHMIDT (See http://atlant2.zko.dec.com/) Fri Jul 19 1996 11:14

  With regard to 4719.97 (attached), the "Notes from the Field"
  gossip column in the July 1, 1996 edition of "InfoWorld" con-
  tained the following observatio about Digital. I haven't seen
  this particular column mentioned here before.

        "...Seems like Digital made an interesting choice recently.
        An insider told me Digital's Enterprise Mail Server product
        got the axe after Microsoft saw a Digital internal memo on
        it. The memo compared Mail Server with Exchange feature for
        feature, and the Digital product won on all counts. The
        Digital Mail Server was "super fast" and could send and
        receive mail from almost any mail product.

        Microsoft apparently didn't like what it read and sent its
        lawyers to Maynard, waving a copy of the companies' market-
        ing agreement.

        "Drop the mail server project ... or else," the suit demanded.

        Digital stopped the mail server development, and the software
        engineers on the project found themselves milling around,
        writing things like Microsoft Mail Driver for DEC MailWorks
        and cc:Mail for DEC MailWorks.

        That was months ago. Now Digital is releasing Office Server,
        and my insider says it's not good enough to compete with
        Microsoft's Exchange. Another depressing chapter in the
        otherwise depressing Digital saga."


                                           Atlant

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             <<< HUMANE::DISK$SCSI:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DIGITAL.NOTE;1 >>>
                        -< The Digital way of working >-
================================================================================
Note 4719.97                       Dear Bob...                          97 of 98
GIDDAY::BACOT                                        31 lines  19-JUL-1996 09:48
                        -< on a more positive note... >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    re: 4719.95
    
    The reason that you've been asked to stop development work is because
    we are giving away our installed base of customers using Digital messaging
    products to Microsoft. They can go Exchange or they can go away.
    
    Why else would we change our internal messaging system to Exchange?,
    Why don't we mention any of our messaging products in our marketing?
    Sorry, we do talk about Microsoft's products. 
    Why are we actively encouraging customers to move off of VMS onto 
    NT even when they are quite happy with products/service and are buying 
    Alpha's to run it all on?  
    
    Why would Digital absorb the tremendous cost of moving from
    one messaging platform to another in these difficult financial times?
    With no clear gains to Digital.
    
    Although I strongly suspect that the actual cost will never be known
    as the cost is pushed out from IS and absorbed at the Cost 
    Center and individual contributer level. Initially additional hardware 
    on the desktop and training costs. Then additional storage costs, loss of
    functionality, loss of data, etc.   How important is your mail anyway?
    
    This is a clear message to our customers. What isn't clear is why
    they should continue to be Digital customers or how this is good
    for Digital.
    
    I've heard it looks good on paper though. 
    
    Angela 

  Whoops! I forgot to mention that we were the headline to that
  column:

   "Bobby [Cringely's] been chasing cats since
    Digital caved in and dumped sexy Mail Server"


                                            Atlant