Progress Licensing Question

[doom1701]

My CFO is having his "freak out about something" time of the month. I'm planning on replacing the DB server for our ERP system that runs on OE 10.1b. I've done this before, and the only time there's been any concerns about fees or license costs has been when we moved from AIX to Redhat--and, at least at that point, they had even started waiving platform transfer fees. We only had to request new license codes.

But, for some reason, our CFO thinks that we're going to get hit with some kind of transfer fee when we replace our server. So I told him I'd ask people that would know.

So, people that would know--please answer "yes" or "no" to the following question: Can I replace our Intel box with another Intel box without having to worry about ticking someone off regarding our licensing? It'll make my CFO sleep better at night.

 

[StuartT]

When you say you are replacing an Intel box with another Intel box, you do not mention operating systems. I assume you are going to be running the same OS, so just go ahead and install OE on the new platform and remove it from the old one when you are done.

 

[doom1701]

When you say you are replacing an Intel box with another Intel box, you do not mention operating systems. I assume you are going to be running the same OS, so just go ahead and install OE on the new platform and remove it from the old one when you are done.

Good point; you're correct in your assumption. Redhat to Redhat.

 

[TomBascom]

There are no longer any platform change fees. If your maintenance is paid up there should be no issue. Just make the phone call and off you go. Personally I wouldn't see any reason to mention anything about new servers and so forth, I'd be upgrading because it is time to upgrade.

 

[doom1701]

The CFO's concern was that Infor would try to pull something over on us; turns out his concerns might have been justified--our sales rep is trying to tell me that there's a platform change fee to move hardware. I already knew this wasn't true, and this confirms it. I like our Infor sales rep--I hate it when she lies to me. She should know I'm going to find out.

Edit: She's trying to say that this is Progress' rule--that our specific licensing is tied to once piece of hardware. I've never heard of such a thing, other than OEM licensing. Tom, do you know of someone that sells Progress licensing (or does your firm do so) that would be able to check this?

I will take back one thing--I guess my CFO's freaking out might be justified. If this gets ugly, I'll simply not upgrade (as far as they know).

 

[StuartT]

The CFO's concern was that Infor would try to pull something over on us; turns out his concerns might have been justified--our sales rep is trying to tell me that there's a platform change fee to move hardware. I already knew this wasn't true, and this confirms it. I like our Infor sales rep--I hate it when she lies to me. She should know I'm going to find out.

Is this a progress sales rep or a third party vendor that you use?
If it is a 3rd party I would have to ask why would you employ a sales rep when enquiring about an upgrade to a product on which you pay a support contract.
You should deal with Progress direct.

 

[tamhas]

For the record, the official position is that changing boxes, even RedHat to RedHat, *is* a platform change. With the elimination of the prior policy of doing a trade-in on a platform change (often called a fee), almost always this is no cost, whether the same platform or not. I say "almost always" because there are certain lurking conditions, like people who still have unlimited user licenses where they force a change. For practical terms, most people who do just do a box swap don't even tell anyone, but technically you should.

 

[doom1701]

Is this a progress sales rep or a third party vendor that you use?
If it is a 3rd party I would have to ask why would you employ a sales rep when enquiring about an upgrade to a product on which you pay a support contract.
You should deal with Progress direct.

It's all done through Infor. I'd be more than happy to go to Progress directly, as this has always been a pain in the butt--anyone have any contacts?

 

[TomBascom]

Your CFO was mostly right to worry. Someone provided too much information and now a sales twit smells a large commission.

Infor sales people are infamous for creatively interpreting any situation in such a way that large sums of money are transferred to Infor. Sorry.

In general you want to keep all sales weasels as far as possible from your operations. Their sole purpose for existence is to identify commission opportunities.

You do have the option of becoming a "direct" customer. But to do that you will need to petition Progress and formally "fire" Infor. And now that there is blood in the water it will be an uphill battle.

The other fun thing to watch out for is a "name change". Now that they can no longer demand "platform changes" at the drop of a hat any sort of name change or corporate transaction is an excuse for these twits to insist on "re licensing".

All of this stuff is subject to negotiation. The sales person will, of course, pretend that there is no room for negotiation and claim that it isn't their fault. This is crap but they get away with it all too often.

If I were in your shoes I would shelve the hardware change for the moment and focus on upgrading Progress.

 

[TomBascom]

BTW, I think that your CFO should call Dave Ireland and have a heart to heart...

 

[doom1701]

Yeah, I think this will have to be something that dies off--I pulled down the EULA and confirmed what tahmas said. I've got enough on my plate--the upgrade can wait.

 

[doom1701]

I put on my hero hat this afternoon; I happened to have a email from our old Infor sales rep (from when he was trying to sell us something) stating that Progress no longer charged platform transfer fees. Gave it to current sales rep. "Well, since you have this, we'll keep our word. You realize the approval I have to get for this, right?" From now on, I'm not discussing "possible" projects with Accounting beyond dollar amounts.

Anyway, crisis averted. Tom, I really appreciate your openness above--really opens my eyes. I don't know if you have any business relationships with Infor--if you do (and if this forum is googleable), I have no objections to this thread being deleted if you feel someone reading this might affect those interests.

 

[tamhas]

Getting rid of all of Tom's complaints about salespeople would result in a major reduction in total internet page count!

 

[TomBascom]

I consider the Goggleability of such posts to be a public service. Sales people who don't like them are welcome to change their behavior and prove me wrong.

 

[TomBascom]

... and executives who don't like them are invited to crack down on their sales people and clean up policies that are subject to abuse.

 

[doom1701]

I always knew I liked the people here.