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Autumn 1998
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Advanced Pick is one of the most popular Pick products, installed and running without hassle in thousands of sites around the world. It and its predecessor, R83, are still widely regarded as the benchmark standard by which other “Pick” products are judged.
Yet Pick Systems has this year announced the end of life of both of these versions. This has caused a variety of reactions, from shock, to anger, as well as the stoical “so what.” We at MultiValue News felt that it would be a good idea to talk to Pick Systems and put the sort of questions and concerns that you have voiced to us. We spoke with Nigel Town, the UK Channel Manager.
MVN – The first question has to be – why has Pick decided to drop these products, despite the fact that they are still widely used and “in demand”?
Pick - You are right, there is still a demand for these products although this was already diminishing rapidly before we made the announcements. Even so, we did not take this step lightly or with any intent to frustrate or confound our users. However, the fact is that these versions are at the end of their lives! This is chiefly because they are products of a way of system operation that has had its day.
Look at the IT industry and ask yourself how many operating system flavours there are now compared to 10 years ago. Our direction (and by the way this was generated by our desire to thrive in this market for the long term) has been to take the best of R83 and AP and fully integrate them into the two most popular operating system environments today, UNIX and NT. The result is D3. That has meant an end to the role of Pick as operating system, which also frees us up to concentrate on enhancing the application development and database environment.
Having said that we have also gone the great lengths to ensure that the current product offerings can address the needs of AP and R83 users. We have done this by providing an environment that will run their applications and support their users in the same way that they are used to, if they don’t want or need the new features.
MVN – OK, but what about the people who are happy to run their current systems and do not want to change. Your End of Life announcement seems to be aimed at forcing people to upgrade to D3.
Pick - The statement issued covers two phases of withdrawal. As of the end of September this year Pick Systems UK Ltd (that’s us here in the UK) will no longer accept any orders for R83 or AP-Native. This will extend to all remaining versions of AP at the end of September 1999. Users with a current support contract can upgrade to D3 at 15% of the licence charge, the same cost as any version upgrade. Users without support contracts will pay more – but will still qualify for discounts. We will also look at any multiple system sites or those people who purchased their software less than a year ago, to make sure that they are not impacted adversely.
We are not forcing anyone to upgrade, but we will also withdraw support and media replacements, etc. for sites out of warranty. This means that anyone who wishes to remain with their current versions may need to talk to us soon about arranging contingencies.
One change to the announcement, made due to the needs expressed by some existing users, is that we will take orders for additional licences to existing sites, albeit that these will not extend their support contract. Support calls placed after the end of life dates will only be taken on a chargeable basis.
That said, the real problem that these people will face, much more of a problem than withdrawal of our support, will be that of locating system hardware and peripherals that will work with these products. We have already upgraded large numbers of users to D3 who hit these problems early on. It is this that is forcing us to take this step, even though it may be unpopular with some.
MVN – You mentioned that you will not supply media or support or take any new orders – what if people just need to re-build their systems because of a crash?
Pick - Where this causes them to have to re-activate their systems Pick will be happy to re-activate. Should they need to re-host (i.e. move to a different platform – say from SCO to HP) then that will require an upgrade to D3.
MVN – You say upgrade to D3 – but what about the costs of this for people running native or DOS versions. These will have to buy the operating system, either UNIX or NT and train up on it so they can support it, won’t they?
Pick - No. Any user or VAR, who wants to run Pick in a “native” mode and does not need the additional features (maybe they see them as hassles) that the operating systems bring, can run D3 in a way that is very close to being native.
The version of D3 called ProPlus, ships complete with a full version of RedHat Linux. In the pack they will also find a listing of standard hardware components. By selecting a set of these and building systems around them, it is possible to configure a machine that will boot through Linux straight into Pick. This ‘single boot’ option means that the end-user, or VAR, never has to see UNIX, once their system is set-up. Further, we at Pick Systems will support the complete environment as one product. This combination costs no more than the D3 licence and support charge they would pay for any other version, and we will be happy to provide initial help to get them started.
MVN – Linux is “freeware” isn’t it? Does that mean it would not be acceptable in commercial sites because of its lack of binding support?
Pick - Some users have expressed this type of concern about the use of Linux, but these are really unfounded. As I said above, for single boot configurations, Pick Systems and our channel partners will provide support. However, where a developer chooses to run the product like the other UNIX flavour of D3, therefore requiring separate support for the Linux environment, they can enter into an arrangement with RedHat’s channel partners here in the UK. These will supply contractually binding support for Linux.
MVN – So users do not necessarily face additional software costs as a result of the upgrade to D3, but, they do have to go through the process of upgrade. This is work and work still means cost. Why should a site, happy with their current environment, have to put up with this expense?
Pick - That is a tough question and one I guess is at the front of a few people’s minds. Rather than ducking it, let me turn it around.
I know that there are sites that are content with what they have today. However, when we demonstrate the benefit that D3 brings above R83 or AP, our most common reaction is one of shocked amazement.
We have invested a lot of effort in opening up D3 so that it can exchange information with other computer environments. This means that the integration with products like Excel and Word, is easy, natural and requires no code changes or additional software.
We thought that the investment we put into this work alone adds sufficient value to the environment to justify the cost of upgrade. When we show what it means to people out in the world they universally agree. What is more, our VARs are becoming able, by taking advantage of these features, to retain sites and win new business against competition that would beat AP or R83 based applications. This is what will grow and protect the Pick market and that is what we are in business to do.
Pick Systems Limited (UK)
Last Updated: 31 October 1998