Only if you believe that competitors will do better

Post #152,883 by ben_tilly 4/28/04 11:28:14 AM Reply	Only if you believe that competitors will do better Normally every alternative to Microsoft will offer the same (low)value proposition that Microsoft does. The result comes down to managing lock-in. The book [link\|http://www.inforules.com/\|Information Rules] walks you through this in detail. What is different now is that open source offers a viable alternative to the usual economics of lock-in. However it is only viable in some scenarios. (Namely either you are willing to take over your own maintainance issues, or you are confident that someone else will be willing to before you have to.) Figuring out whether you are in one of those is a non-trivial business decision. If you are not, then you could wind up stranded pretty badly. (Unfortunately, of course, actual IT decisions tend to be made by people who understand none of this...) Cheers, Ben To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act - [link\|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20\|Nebraska Supreme Court]
Post #152,903 by jb4 4/28/04 1:17:57 PM Reply	Until I read your last paragraph, I was gonna say... ..."and this differs from Standard Business Practice how?" jb4 shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub* + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf.* BULLSHIT
Post #152,908 by ben_tilly 4/28/04 2:13:46 PM 4/28/04 2:15:27 PM Reply	After reading that response I am forced to say... ..."and this differs from Standard Business Practice how?" OK, OK. Being serious. Most areas of business are not all about managing lock-in effects. This focus is an unusual aspect of IT. Cheers, Ben To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act - [link\|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20\|Nebraska Supreme Court] Edited by ben_tilly April 28, 2004, 02:15:27 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #152,930 by Andrew Grygus 4/28/04 4:29:28 PM Reply	Not just IT. I can't think of any equipment manufacturer from Caterpillar on down that doesn't try to get lock-in for parts, services and even upgrades. The medical testing equipment at labs I deal with - I always wondered how these rickety outfits could afford that fancy equipment, so I talked to a lady from Bechman. She said the machine we were setting up listed at a quarter of a million, but the lab didn't actually pay for it. What they did was sign a contract that they have to buy all the reagents, supplies and services from Bechman. The way out of their previous contract was to upgrade to the latest model. Now that's lock-in in spades. One of the clients who complains about my high charges accidentally left a Bechman service invoice exposed. A low level Bechman tech charges $250/hr including travel time. You didn't think Microsoft actually "innovated" lock-in did you? [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #152,936 by ben_tilly 4/28/04 4:48:06 PM Reply	No, not JUST IT But the ease of achieving lock-in is much higher with IT than in many other areas of business. For instance a restaurant-goer isn't locked into any particular restaurant. Ford is not generally locked in to any particular parts supplier. That other areas of business want to achieve lock-in is natural. When Coke is in a position to nail a restaurant that sold Pepsi as Coke, they force them to only sell soft-drinks from Coca-Cola. Nice profit opportunity there. Your airline is trying to do the same with a frequent-flyer program. And when you get to other technology businesses, the same dynamics that drive it in IT are at work. However software is special. Software lock-in tends to be harder to avoid, and other business factors (such as significant per unit manufacturing costs) are missing, making management of lock-in a more significant dynamic than otherwise. As for your snide comment about Microsoft, I'd hope you would give me more credit than that. Or did you think that I didn't know that Microsoft learned directly from IBM? Cheers, Ben To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act - [link\|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20\|Nebraska Supreme Court]

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