Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!dawn.crd.ge.COM!stpeters
From: stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.COM (Dick St.Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: How do big companies choose vendors?
Message-ID: <9007042043.AA14875@dawn.crd.Ge.Com>
Date: 4 Jul 90 20:43:57 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 38

Chan Benson writes:

> > If I ever buy a workstation...I will require that it *not* come with
> > Motif.  I have no interest in paying extra for something I don't want
> > and won't be using.

> Anyway, you're not the type of customer being discussed. Companies who
> buy hundreds of workstations at a pop want system software supported by the
> company they bought them from (ie. they're one-stop shoppers).

Companies like us (GE)?  I've been told by vendors that GE is the
largest non-government buyer of computers (although I've never seen
any real figures).

You're remarkably naive if you don't think that costs, hidden or
otherwise, are a *major* factor in buying decisions.

> Take a vacation from your ivory tower and get a look at the world (aka the 
> military-industrial complex from which the money flows that makes this
> all possible).

Two months ago GE (an OSF member!) signed an agreement with Sun to be
its strategic workstation vendor.  A lot of money will flow ...

[The agreement is *not* a GE endorsement of any GUI; GE is as divided
on this as is the rest of the world.]

The agreement is also non-exclusive: no vendor is shut out.  Give us
the deal that's best (in our terms), and we'll buy from you.  But
don't sit in your lab and tell us what we want.

From my perspective, vendors' engineering labs shine with as much
ivory as any in academia.

--
Dick St.Peters, GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com	uunet!dawn.crd.ge.com!stpeters
Speaking about GE, not for it.  The opinions are mine.