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From: chan@hpfcmgw.HP.COM (Chan Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: How do big companies choose vendors?
Message-ID: <1210037@hpfcmgw.HP.COM>
Date: 9 Jul 90 21:36:38 GMT
References: <9007042043.AA14875@dawn.crd.Ge.Com>
Organization: HP Fort Collins, CO
Lines: 39

>> 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.

You missed my point (not surprising, since I didn't make it very
clear). The original statement was that customers will require
Motif to be provided and supported by system vendors. I know this to
be true from reading actual RFPs from customers. Someone from a 
university said that was stupid, he didn't want to pay for something 
he wasn't going to use.  I went overboard in backing up the original 
statement (which was that customers will soon demand Motif). 

Although I regret the way I said it, I stand behind my view that large
customers (such as divisions of GE) want complete systems that are
supported by the system vendor.  They are willing to pay extra for
single point support of system software (as opposed to getting internal 
staff to support freeware).

> But don't sit in your lab and tell us what we want.

I wasn't trying to. Just relaying what customers have told me *they* want. 

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

That's fine, I don't work in an engineering lab. My opinions are the
results of working closely with many customers who have spent large
sums of money on HP computer systems (GE included). I don't pretend
that they represent the entire computer market, but they are more
indicative than the view of a single hacker at a university.

			-- Chan