Why you should be looking to replace

Senior Service Manager Unix and go to windows?

Please understand a couple of things.

Senior Service Manager for Unix and Senior Service Manager for windows is the same computer program running on different types of computers.

First a history lesson.

Why did we use Unix for the operating system for our computer program?

Actually we started using Xenix then we moved to Unix in the late 80’s because personal computers were notorious for ‘crashing’. As the application (the program) did more and more things it would tax the Microsoft operating systems beyond their capabilities. Dos, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 were all too light to use. So we used Unix. We also used MSDOS for Single Users and we even had a few Novell Networks running in the day. But that’s a story for another day. During the 1990’s we primarily used Unix. Then Microsoft improved their OS called NT at the time. (It stood for Network Technology) By the time they released Version 4 of NT it was nearly as stable as Unix (I know I stretch the word nearly on this one) but what it allowed us to do is migrate Senior Service Manager over to Windows and our client could use newer technology in their shop. Internet came rushing in during the last decade and most people now have 2 networks, 1 for Senior Service Manager and one for everything else.

Now back to the present.

Why do we care if you stay on Unix or move to Windows?

It has been our commitment to you to deal with you computer needs. A series of weird things are converging on you and if we aren’t prepared you and your company will be hurt.

First things first. SCO Unix (that’s the brand name of Unix we use) is in bankruptcy and may or may not be viable for years if ever.

The ‘Stallion’ board is no longer made or even serviced.

Printers are harder to find and often require a lot of set up time.

12 year old Hard Drives are getting really hard to find. Think eBay, think used.

So old hardware can’t be fixed and old peripherals can’t be used with new hardware. So when failure happens (and it always will) a complete hardware replacement plan may need to be implemented. Why would we force you to stay on a Unix system when we can use all the benefits of Windows?

As the number of Unix driven systems decline the cost of development continues to climb. We find the cost of development to be worthy of only one supported Operating System and we have already produced a new version of Senior Service Manager with at least 2 more upgrades planned. Version 5.1e was recently released and takes care of some housekeeping issues that were starting to cause problems. Release 5.2 will soon be handling email along with EZMail being upgraded to include Microsoft Word 2007.

So what is the process?

Step 1, we crash and we go into emergency mode, not good but we can help.

Alternate Step 1, we plan and we move to Windows before Step 1.

Let’s take inventory of all of our computers, Make and Model, Operating System, Processors, Processor Speed and RAM.

Let’s Inventory the Printers

Let’s plan on replacing all of the patch cables.

What about the networking equipment, do you have it or need it?

Now were ready to quote full hardware replacement and allow you to also get second quotes.

There is a cost to move you from Unix to Windows but your support access agreement covers part of that. There is also a new version of the Progress Database to obtain.

Moving from Unix to Windows may take 3 to 6 months if we can plan it out and this will be with no interruption of service. If the system crashes first expect to be down for up to a week, cost you thousands of dollars more and generally allow you to buy computer hastily and compromise all at the wrong time.