Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

425.0. "Differentiating database" by DPDMAI::DAVISGB (Gil Davis DTN 554-7245) Mon Sep 11 1989 23:44

    The other day I was last on the agenda to present our OLTP and Database
    Strategy to a group from Electronic Data Systems (EDS).  As time went
    by, each speaker before me was going more and more over their allotted
    time.  Well, my chance came up...and the EDS crew were leaving in twenty
    minutes!   Apparently, they had another meeting to attend at 1:00 p.m.
    and would be leaving at exactly 1:00.  When I started to present, I
    mentioned that this wasn't nearly enough time to discuss a topic which
    I believed was extremely important to them, but as I understood it,
    they were all "turning into pumpkins at 1:00".
    
    One guy in the front row said "No, we have to go talk with another
    vendor."  "And who might that be?", I asked. "Sybase" he replied.
    
    Hmmm....so I spent the next 20 minutes shuffling overheads and running
    at the mouth like a McCulloch chain saw...and then asked once again for
    another chance to discuss the subject at hand in further detail.  But
    while talking, I threw out every characteristic I could think of that
    would be embarrassing to Sybase if asked about that feature (obviously,
    without mentioning Sybase by name...)...this WAS interesting, because
    usually, I'm defending us against ORACLE (which BTW is getting easier).
    
    Well, it paid off.  I have been asked back for another command
    performance by the EDS folks....this time for a DAY!  I think the first
    thing I'll ask is 'how did the meeting with Sybase go??'
    
    Which brings me to a major point.  Don't fall into the trap of having a
    customer spend 5 hours with the Digital crew discussing VMS, VAX,
    clusters, networking, office, CASE, OLTP, Database, Realtime, ....
    and then allow the customer to go spend the same amount of time talking
    to the Sybase or Oracle folks.  Obviously, they can fill a customers
    head with a lot more propaganda in 2 hours than you can in 30 minutes.
    ASK for another chance to discuss database in depth...to discuss their
    application in depth or whatever.  If one component of what we sell
    (especially database) is lost in the presentation, then that component
    will probably be lost to a vendor that focuses on strictly that
    product...because that's all they sell...and we will lose.  Or as Larry
    Ellison put's it...."It's not sufficient that I succeed,..Everyone else
    must fail."