Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

1205.0. "Countering the Sybase Menace ..." by POBOX::HORTON () Tue Nov 10 1992 23:26

I attended a presentation/demo of the DECadmire product yesterday and was quite
impressed with it.  During the presentation, it occurred to me that DECadmire
could be used quite effectively to counter one of Sybase's favorite strategies
against Rdb.

The Sybase database architecture includes a little transaction processing and
a lot of client/server stuff.  They paint a picture of distributed 
client/server applications running across the customer's network all under 
the control of their "transaction processing" monitor.

If we try to counter this with a straight-forward Rdb approach, we tend to get
beaten rather badly, since the principal part of Rdb's client/server and 
transaction processing "goodness" are contained in an Rdb/ACMS/DECforms/CDD
systems integration.

If we are clever enough to counter Sybase with an Rdb/ACMS/DECforms/CDD 
approach, we many times are defeated due to the perceived difficulty in 
implementing "something as complicated" as ACMS with the attendent ramping
up of knowledgibility and experience involved in the various "sub-products"
involved.  The Sybase marketing team can effectively counter our approach
with a "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" approach and still win out.

This even though our approach is superior technically to that of Sybase and
costs less besides (both initially and over a five year payout period).

However, using our approach as it was described above with the addition of
the DECadmire technology to generate the principal part of the application
"while you wait" (plus its other advantages) would probably be more than enough
to defeat Sybase out of hand (at least on most of the marketing efforts that 
I have been involved in).

While DECadmire does not preclude the necessity of knowing what it is that is
desired by the customer and a knowledgibility of the various "sub-products"
involved in an Rdb/ACMS/DECforms/CDD solution, it does rearrange the time
table for that knowledgibility, enables the development team to show excellent
productivity sooner, and probably will produce a happier customer environment
(both ours and our immediate customer's).

It also provides us with an opportunity to sell DECadmire application 
development consulting services while the customer "ramps up".