rob@innovus.UUCP (Rob Sciuk) (07/14/89)
As we have a 540 that we are paying $BIG BUX$ to continue our
software maintenance for, and considering that HP is putting
out the *LAST* release of HP-UX (5.3) for that system, is there
any word on when the release will be shipped to customers ?? We
would like to upgrade and cancel the SMS (since RFA is currently
badly busted).
The last I heard it was to ship in June.
The following is directed to HP ... and does not constitute a flame ...
hopefully some constructive sugggestions that may help us ALL
out.
While we are on the topic of SMS support, we have been experiencing
a number of difficulties with our support services on the 3xx and 8xx's
o Software shipments are typically late (as software developers
we like to get O/S upgrades *BEFORE* our customers).
o Speaking of which ... why is there no prioritization
of shipments to qualified ISV's prior to general release
to allow us to support the nice HP-UX enhancements in
time for customers to enjoy them? Things like NEWWAVE,
X-11R3, and all those other neat GUI's that seem to be
floating around out there.
o Media does not ship in 1 package, and is spread out
over several shipments. This makes it exceedingly
difficult to determine when your materials are all
on hand and you can safely upgrade.
o Media is always 9144 *sigh* when 9 Track would be
ever so much easier/reliable/convenient/etc etc.
o Shipments are product oriented and not customer oriented.
by creating a customer specific distribution tape, the
extra labour must be MORE than offset in terms of media
(those *expletive deleted* cartridges are expensive!).
o I believe that MIT releases on the 3000 come with O/S and
customer specific SUBSYSTEM tapes ... maybe a lesson
can be learned from the nice people in the commercial
sector.
While we are generally pleased with support services, RCS and all the
other neat goodies that HP provides, a few things need to be fixed in
the software distribution side that would put HP right over the top
in terms of this customer's satisfaction.
rss.
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Rob Sciuk utzoo!yunexus!maccs!innovus!rob or rob@innovus
Innovus Inc. 204-200 James St S. Hamilton, Ont. Phone: (416) 529-8117
{not a flame ... merely a glimmer ...} Fax: (416) 572-9586 frank@zen.co.uk (Frank Wales) (07/20/89)
In article <226@innovus.UUCP> rob@innovus.UUCP (Rob Sciuk) writes: >While we are on the topic of SMS support, we have been experiencing >a number of difficulties with our support services on the 3xx and 8xx's You are not alone in this, although things are improving in some areas. > o Software shipments are typically late (as software developers > we like to get O/S upgrades *BEFORE* our customers). It seems to vary, but mostly we seem to get our update tapes after other people; we once jokingly considered changing our company name to Aardvark Systems just to see it if had an effect on deliveries. Regarding getting updates prior to customers, we often arrange to receive the customer's update tapes at our site, which means that we *do* get the release before them, but also means that we have to install it ourselves. It depends what type of customers you have, and how many. > o Media does not ship in 1 package, and is spread out > over several shipments. This makes it exceedingly > difficult to determine when your materials are all > on hand and you can safely upgrade. This will be getting changed, as I understand it. Indeed, we recently received our 6.5 bundles all in one box, with (most) manuals. Surprisingly, though, the bundle tape also included some products for which we had already been sent separate 6.5 product tapes, so things aren't all together just yet. Also, after taking delivery of 3.1 core product tapes, and then nothing for a while, we got all the other 3.1 tapes we were due (which is practically every 800 product in the book :-)) in one shipment (although they were still in several boxes, and the manuals are still catching up). > o Media is always 9144 *sigh* when 9 Track would be > ever so much easier/reliable/convenient/etc etc. This is definitely a contracts problem; we receive 300 updates on DC600 cartridge, but 800 updates on 9 track, 1600 bps tapes. I'm sure you could get this changed, at least for the 800s. > o Shipments are product oriented and not customer oriented. > by creating a customer specific distribution tape, the > extra labour must be MORE than offset in terms of media > (those *expletive deleted* cartridges are expensive!). Don't forget that duplication of one tape is much easier (i.e., cheaper) than separate preparation of many different tapes; it is also less error prone. I don't object to separate tapes (we strip the labels off and use them for other things anyway); it's the horrendous amount of manuals I object to, especially those we don't need, like all the PORT-UX stuff (please unbundle this product) and the Beginner's Guides and the almost entirely useless and bizarrely named Documentation Roadmaps. The turnover on manual sets is only going to get worse with the introduction of non-ring bound HP-UX Reference sets (which can't be laid down flat, arrgh!, and look like they were printed on toilet paper). One other point which I'd like to make is: o Software Status Bulletins are an excellent idea iff they contain information useful to the customers. *Please* can you edit them so that those problems which are reported don't get summed up in one line, such as KPR4700691063: Product: HPUX One-Line Description: Colored boxes has [sic] extraneous black lines across them using topgun. That's the whole problem report. I'd be interested to find out how many people within HP know what this is, what it refers to, and whether it has a fix available (if it needs one). For any problems reported, I'd like enough information to know if I have the problem at my site, and equally important, whether a fix is (or will be) available. Maybe I'm unusual in caring about the state of HP-UX enough to actually read this stuff. -- Frank Wales, Systems Manager, [frank@zen.co.uk<->mcvax!zen.co.uk!frank] Zengrange Ltd., Greenfield Rd., Leeds, ENGLAND, LS9 8DB. (+44) 532 489048 x217