"My company requires we get 3 bids – and Source Data Products, Inc .had the best price. As a JD Edwards user, the biggest difference was the price for setup and migration. I got one bid for the JD Edwards migration that was nearly 5 times the price quoted by Source Data – a savings of $40,000."
Background
General contractors for over 87 years and with offices in both Southern and Northern California, Steve P. Rados, Inc. (SPR) is a California-based heavy engineering construction company with diverse projects ranging from bridges, interchanges, streets and highways to water transmission lines, sewer systems, treatment plants, flood control structures, marine pipelines, reservoirs, and channels. Most of SPR’s clients include utilities and state and local government.
Since 2000, Steve P. Rados, Inc. has supported 15 primary users and a total of 40 users on a 9406-820 on V5R4. SPR relies on J.D. Edwards A7.3 for their application software. In 2012, with notification of IBM’s intent to discontinue OS400 V5R4 support in September 2013 and Oracle’s notification to withdraw support for J.D. Edwards A7.3, Information Technology Manager Jerrod Williams knew it was time to upgrade to a more modern IBM POWER i server.
Inherited IBM 9406-820 And J.D. Edwards Technology
“Actually, the IBM 9406-820 and J.D. Edwards were in operation before my time,” explains Jerrod. “When I came on board to Steve P. Rados, Inc., I inherited the management of this technology.”
“With the announcements from IBM and Oracle of their intent to discontinue support for our IBM 9406-820 technology, it only made sense to get up to speed on a newer server,” Jerrod continues.
Support Expiration Like Technical Time Bomb
“The users that rely on J.D. Edwards include the controller, the accounting manager, the payroll manager, accounts payable and the equipment managing department. They were not really aware of the pending expiration of support. I knew my support expiration was like a technical time-bomb but as far as my users were concerned, as long as they get the reports that they need, they are happy. So I took the initiative to research what we needed to do.
SPR Requires Three Bids
“Our company requires that we get three bids. For example, every time we have to buy ink or toner, we source about the three different suppliers.
“While we had worked with Source Data Products since 2000, I also invited two other IBM Business Partners to participate in our server evaluation. The other two Business Partners had been referred to us and were established businesses. I could tell from talking to their technical people that they were capable.
Source Data Products, Our Business Partner Since 2000
“But these other two business partners seemed more accustomed to working with larger businesses. They gave me the impression that they generally don’t work with businesses with 15 primary users. Instead, I got the feeling that these IBM Business Partners’ clients generally had 200 to 500 users or more. That by itself really doesn’t bother me but I noticed that their support fees were way more expensive. I just didn’t feel they were on the same scale as we are.
Source Data Products Understands Size and Scale
“I knew from our relationship with Source Data that they were much more aligned with a business of our size.
“I also felt these bigger Business Partners just fired manpower at projects instead of taking the time to get deep into figuring out what needs to be done so the work could be completed more cost-effectively.
Business Partners’ Proposals With A Difference
“When each of the Business Partners presented their proposals, the server configuration prices were relatively close.
“The biggest difference was the price for setup and migration. I knew with J.D. Edwards, our migration from OS400 V5R4 to V7R1 would probably be more expensive. In fact, I got one bid for the migration that was nearly 5 times the price quoted by Source Data.
SDP Professional Services Include Comfort Factor
“Source Data’s professional services were still lower. I also had a comfort factor that Source Data could deliver because of our past relationship. I could tell during our evaluation that Source Data’s technical team was competent as well as experienced with migrating J.D. Edwards users to newer versions of OS400.
Source Data’s Senior OS400 Expert More Than Willing To Help
“I worked with one of Source Data’s senior OS400 technical experts, Mark Breisacher. Working with Mark was pretty painless. He did pretty much all the leg work getting everything converted. He did exactly what we pay them to do. If I came in on a weekend, he was more than willing to help out when I needed him — no matter if it was 7:00 in the morning. Sure enough, every time I called, he was there and willing to help.
“Overall, it was a pretty smooth transition. After we got our POWER i up and running, we did encounter a printing issue. We had a case where the printer was printing characters all over the place. So Mark got IBM involved and we got it all fixed.
End Users Notice Speed Improvement
“When we went live, the end-users noticed an improvement in speed. Everyone seemed to notice their screens went faster. They log on a little bit quicker. They notice their processes run faster.
LAN Console What I Really Like
“What I really like is the new LAN console. I can get to the system from my office or from my home. I don’t have to go to the server room anymore to work with the console. It’s fantastic. I can even VPN from my desktop at home. If I ever have a problem, I could have Mark Breisacher dial-in remotely with LAN console access to determine what’s going wrong and fix it. For me, this is really huge.
Definitely Recommend Source Data Products
“I would recommend Source Data Products. Source Data is more than capable to get the job done. I find them very responsive. Very customer-oriented. And competitively priced. I can more than trust them to get the job done on time and priced as promised.”