Thread: PostgreSQL in Brazil
Here is a story. There is a company in Brazil with about 20,000
clients all over Brazil. They made a decision to move from BTrieve
to PostgreSQL. BTrieve had been supplied by DBExperts. After a
sales pitch to by the owner of DBExperts, the board of directors,
have made a subsequent decision to move to Pervasive.SQL.
This company has very high visibility. And I think dbExperts
gets around the area of Brazil a lot, too.
Oh, the funny part... The sales pitch for Pervasive.SQL included:
* "You install the software and forget it!"
* [ and if you have Btrieve files then ] "...you can access these
files with transactional procedures if you like to."
I'm have no idea what to do about the problem, but I know
that the (postgresql) person doing the data migration is miserable.
As we know, PostgreSQL is big in Brazil. It is likely DbExperts
is shooting themselves in the foot.
This is the kind of thing we should know about. I'm not sure
we could provide enough fodder to override the salespitch
in a particular case since that pretty much has to be an inside job.
The only thing I can think of is to tell the story.
People make bad business decisions all the time.
elein
=============================================================
elein@varlena.com Database Consulting www.varlena.com
"Free your mind the rest will follow"
-- En Vogue
If they choose something other than PostgreSQL, they will be back. :-) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- elein wrote: > Here is a story. There is a company in Brazil with about 20,000 > clients all over Brazil. They made a decision to move from BTrieve > to PostgreSQL. BTrieve had been supplied by DBExperts. After a > sales pitch to by the owner of DBExperts, the board of directors, > have made a subsequent decision to move to Pervasive.SQL. > > This company has very high visibility. And I think dbExperts > gets around the area of Brazil a lot, too. > > Oh, the funny part... The sales pitch for Pervasive.SQL included: > * "You install the software and forget it!" > * [ and if you have Btrieve files then ] "...you can access these > files with transactional procedures if you like to." > > I'm have no idea what to do about the problem, but I know > that the (postgresql) person doing the data migration is miserable. > > As we know, PostgreSQL is big in Brazil. It is likely DbExperts > is shooting themselves in the foot. > > This is the kind of thing we should know about. I'm not sure > we could provide enough fodder to override the salespitch > in a particular case since that pretty much has to be an inside job. > > The only thing I can think of is to tell the story. > People make bad business decisions all the time. > > elein > > ============================================================= > elein@varlena.com Database Consulting www.varlena.com > > "Free your mind the rest will follow" > -- En Vogue > > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly > -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
Hi Elein,
elein wrote:
> Here is a story. There is a company in Brazil with about 20,000
> clients all over Brazil. They made a decision to move from BTrieve
> to PostgreSQL. BTrieve had been supplied by DBExperts. After a
> sales pitch to by the owner of DBExperts, the board of directors,
> have made a subsequent decision to move to Pervasive.SQL.
> ...
> As we know, PostgreSQL is big in Brazil. It is likely DbExperts
> is shooting themselves in the foot.
> ...
> This is the kind of thing we should know about. I'm not sure
> we could provide enough fodder to override the salespitch
> in a particular case since that pretty much has to be an inside job.
As far as I know, dbExperts' owner has another company (older than
dbEx) that has supported BTrieve for a long time, and now they continue
as resellers/solution providers of Pervasive. Once I talked with someone
that works/worked at dbExperts. No doubt that they try to deploy
postgresql where they can. However, I think that in this case they would
make more money selling Pervasive.
Another important point is that this company that you're saying
probably has used BTrieve for a long time. For big companies,
consolidation matters a lot (even if they have to deploy poor software).
Maybe they chose Pervasive just because it's the "next generation
btrieve", and they think that by using it they could keep their systems
"almost as they were".
IMHO, to a certain point, the executive that made this decision is
right, at least he considering himself: If something went wrong and he
had no one to blame, then he would be fired, mainly if he could have
chosen the "next-generation" of a solution already deployed and proven.
Of course, if it was me, I'd pick PostgreSQL without thinking twice, but
considering that decision-makers usually don't known much about the
products they're buying, I don't think this is absurd. Also, their staff
could possibly be reluctant to learn/adopt different systems than the
ones they're used to. In my last job, I had a lot of trouble with this.
Surprisingly enough, these executives/staff people sometimes don't
achieve IT consolidation :-)
[]s
Ricardo.
I speak more: Brazil is seeing open source project with *very* good eyes, including PgSQL. We are working for adoption of PG in many segments of government and education, making a good base. After this work, the companies will see this too. Claudio Bruce Momjian escreveu: > If they choose something other than PostgreSQL, they will be back. :-) > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > elein wrote: > >>Here is a story. There is a company in Brazil with about 20,000 >>clients all over Brazil. They made a decision to move from BTrieve >>to PostgreSQL. BTrieve had been supplied by DBExperts. After a >>sales pitch to by the owner of DBExperts, the board of directors, >>have made a subsequent decision to move to Pervasive.SQL. >> >>This company has very high visibility. And I think dbExperts >>gets around the area of Brazil a lot, too. >> >>Oh, the funny part... The sales pitch for Pervasive.SQL included: >> * "You install the software and forget it!" >> * [ and if you have Btrieve files then ] "...you can access these >> files with transactional procedures if you like to." >> >>I'm have no idea what to do about the problem, but I know >>that the (postgresql) person doing the data migration is miserable. >> >>As we know, PostgreSQL is big in Brazil. It is likely DbExperts >>is shooting themselves in the foot. >> >>This is the kind of thing we should know about. I'm not sure >>we could provide enough fodder to override the salespitch >>in a particular case since that pretty much has to be an inside job. >> >>The only thing I can think of is to tell the story. >>People make bad business decisions all the time. >> >>elein >> >>============================================================= >>elein@varlena.com Database Consulting www.varlena.com >> >>"Free your mind the rest will follow" >> -- En Vogue >> >> >>---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- >>TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate >> subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your >> message can get through to the mailing list cleanly >> > > -- Claudio Ferreira Filho ======================================= OpenOffice.org Projeto Brasil http://www.openoffice.org.br Projeto PostgreSQL-Br http://pgsqlbr.querencialivre.rs.gov.br --------------------------------------- Não seja pirata, seja LIVRE ! ---------------------------------------
Elein, > > This is the kind of thing we should know about. I'm not sure > > we could provide enough fodder to override the salespitch > > in a particular case since that pretty much has to be an inside job. I don't think we could. From your story, the Brazillian company based their decision on what DBExperts recommended, not on technical requirements. From the company's perspective, what's important is not the database but that DBExperts guarentees that it will work ... and supposedly has a support contract to that effect. No doubt DBExperts had ulterior motives for recommending Pervasive ... I can't imagine recommending it on technical grounds ... but that's not our business. Except maybe to note somewhere that DBExperts cannot be considered "PostgreSQL supporters" anymore. The only thing we could have done in a case like this is to alert a competing support company in time to make a competitive bid based on PostgreSQL. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco