From: jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM (Jim Gordon)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: An insider's view
Date: 18 Dec 1992 13:58:11 -0500
Organization: Mailing List Gateway
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM (Jim Gordon)
NNTP-Posting-Host: emory.mathcs.emory.edu
X-Informix-List-ID: <list.1726>

> Hello,
>
> And if these feature requests should be really justified - what is
> the problem ?  As you already mentioned - is there something better
> on the market ?  No - and people who come from Cobol or Assembler
> are happy with the product. Forget the few ones who want to make
> software with a screen handling which is state of the art. I would
> say our 4GL is really a fourth generation language. And if there is
> nothing which is much better - why should we spend money for
> implementing all these features if we can sell it as it is ?
>
To the insider,

This is the same sort of attitude that has got IBM in trouble.  "We
are doing so well that we don't have to keep moving forward.  We are
so strong and good that everybody will keep going forward at the pace
we set.  This can be as slow as we like.".  As we can all see now this
attitude gets even the biggest companies in trouble eventually.
Informix does not have the same market weight that IBM has and likely
never will.  It cannot even say that it is the market or technical
leader except in certain limited areas.  Market/Technical leadership
is claimed by all the big companies (O..., S..., I..., etc) and is in
reality shared by them all with many small companies pushing the
technical leadership.  It is interesting to note the way they leap
frog each other with each product release with O...  now claiming the
lead with its V7 products.

Thankfully it does not appear to me that this attitude is shared by
the senior management in Informix who do appear to be driving forward
with the development of the product range.  We have had the release of
Turbo, Online - 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, Netware Online, 5.01 with 6.0 due next
year in pretty rapid succession.  I will say that the tools group
within Informix has not managed to develop their products as much as
many of us would have liked but quite a few improvements have appeared
with the release of 4.0 and 4.1 I4GL and there is Wingz/Datalink and a
GUI bolt on front end, a remote radio extension and TP/XA for niche
markets.  I hope that the release of I4GL++ due next year will answer
many of the legitimate enhancement requests for I4GL 4.1, many of
which have been requested down the years (Dynamic array allocation,
etc).

I would say that the person who stands still in this world gets passed
very quickly.  For an employee of Informix to suggest that they do not
need to develop their product because it is the best around shows a
woeful lack of regard for history.  Witness all those other companies
that said that of their products and now have been bought out or gone
bankrupt because they stopped moving forward.

Also the claim that the product is the best can only be described as a
personal opinion.  Personally I think the products are pretty good,
but there are plenty of other products out there that can do
everything that the Informix product line can do.  These other
products are better in some areas and worse in others, the choice is
dependant on the environment, requirements and personal preferences.
Informix's products are not so much better that they stand out across
the entire marketplace.

Once Informix takes the attitude that they are the best and do not
need to compete, then that will indeed be the time to look elsewhere
for product.  Thank (whoever) that this person is not in charge of
future product development.

Cheers - Jim

My opinions are my own....not my employers;
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Name:     Jim Gordon               Internet: jgordon@ssf-sys.DHL.COM
Company:  DHL Systems Inc          Phone:    (415) 358-5911 (Work)
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