So I was doing my normal reading for the week and found out through The iSeries Blog that Vision Solutions has started a blog. They only have one post by Alan Arnold.
The first post is about HA and Banking when in fact I think it should have been about the Elephant that is still in the room, I would like them to address the following questions and I am still waiting for that interview Peter that was promised some 6 months ago.
1 - Why did Vision purchase two very profitable, very successful HA companies?
2 - What did Vision say to the owners of those two companies that would make them sell? How much does it cost to do a deal with the devil?
3 - When should we expect to see some kind of clarity on how you all are going to handle the products and support? I think we all know my stance. iTera and Lakeview both had support that on a scale from 1 to 10 was off that chart. They delivered support while Vision may have rated a 5 or 6. While I am known to beat up on Vision I think that is a pretty fair rating.
4 - With IBM now in the HA game and in my opinion working to make HA apart of the OS in effect placing a check mate to your check….what do you do now to position yourself so that customer spend the extra money for a solution you have that may in fact become irrelevant?
So with that said I am still going to try to work a few contacts I have and move in for an interview.
5 - One last question….What response do you have for harrassing former iTera employees to the point of exhaustion and mental break down so that they quit vs. offering them a heatlhy severance package? You did in fact purchase the company and should have the ethical fiber to terminate people while at the same time offering them a way to transition to other jobs.
I think that should do it for now…..
As a side note. I posted to the blog before I posted here and they have pulled my welcome comments from the blog already. I guess you know where you stand when you ask the hard questions no one seems to have the right answer for. They have the comments on now that “ Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the author has approved them.” This is of course new since I made my post.
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September 29th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Companies have to be careful with blogging. They run the fine line of being informative and taking comments and simply using the blog as another form of advertising that they want to appear as something genuine.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Here Here Ken! I think we are coming from the same place on this one. I don’t see most companies using them right. Sun however does seem to get it and allows them to be used in very interesting ways.
September 30th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I think they have seen the benefit of giving people advice, unfortunately I dont think the person they have chosen this time is the right person to do it! You cannot just spout out the same old rhetoric that you have been using in your white papers and seminars for the last 10 years and think that is what blogging is all about. We use the Blog to give people information and yes sometimes that is advertising. We have a very limited staff and the things we blog about are all to do with what we have achieved, not always ground breaking news but something to let people know just how hard we are working on making new things for the IBM System i5! thats why we called the blog what we did.
So while I do honestly try not to ram advertising down peoples throats or try to push my latest marketing message, when I achieve something which I feel is important to me and the blog I write about it! I don’t think I am clever enough to be sneeky and use it as an advertising ploy, but sometimes it just turns out that way. Plus its good for us as a company as well (now thats sneeky!).
I dont think the Vision blog will be one I will add to my list! I dont really like the guy and have no respect for him so I am not expecting to get anything but drivel from it! I am sure my comments much like yours would be moderated out!
Chris…
September 30th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Chris I would agree….they are just think it was going to be a way to make us all get all warm and fuzzy with Vision and the poor job they are doing. I still am not convinced that they are hell bent on owning a market they could not win for obvious reasons. Sadly their attempts will only make people more upset when the smoke clears and they realize it was just marketing fluff.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:04 am
10AM MST and still no one has “approved” my post. I am holing out hope they are willing to have frank dicussions about their “technology”.
October 1st, 2007 at 1:25 pm
2 PM MST - Still no post. I am going to assume 2 things have happen. They didn’t like my comments because of who I am and how I have held their feet to the fire in the past or between Friday and Monday they forgot they had the blog and no one is checking it anymore.
October 1st, 2007 at 10:05 pm
11:04 PM MST - Monday - Still they have not posted comments on the site. It sad. I think Vision needs to get it together or just be done with it. It’s only a matter of time before they implode.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Thats OK they haven’t updated the blog since it went UP!!! Obviously dont have a lot of content they want to share with us. Perhaps we are the only 2 people who have actually visited the site? Waste of space and time in my eyes!
Chris…
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I think they just forgot about it?
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:36 pm
This is the kind of service you get from Vision. They ignore you if they think your un-important. I have had legitimate issues with Vision over the years and I still do. I don’t think they can come down from their Ivory Tower long enough to figure out they are going to ruin 2 good HA companies while trying to keep theirs afloat. I hold by that opinion. I have now confirmation from long time people who have worked at Vision, not iTera and Lakeview that say everyone in the C level is just playing dumb and saying it’s growing pains. I am not going to use their exact words as that might give away who they are.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:08 am
I called Allen, Pete and a marketing person trying to get an interview. No one would talk to me nor have they returned my call as of yet. I will keep you all posted. I want to do an interview with them and find out how the support team is handling 3 products. What the rate or attrition is in the support center and what do they plan to do with the three companies and to many products that overlap each other.
October 5th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I just heard they let Ken Zaiken go! Looks like the attrition is still continuing and not necessarily in the right areas! Big layoffs don’t make good news so I suppose this is one way of keeping the news hounds at bay?
Chris…
October 8th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Chris to be fair you have to explain for the other people who Ken Zaiken is please and why letting someone like him go is important.
October 11th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Ken is was Mr HA at IBM when I first went there in 1990. He was the go to guy when you wanted to know about how HA should be approached and how IBM was delivering the resources to allow companies like Lakeview and Vision deliver their solutions.
He was the main architect for the MiMiX product and led the development team at Lakeview. I am not sure what his full responsibilities were but I know he had the ear of the owner Bill Merchantz more than others!
I am sure a lot of the new features which are available in MiMiX can be attributed to Kens input.
Chris…