Re: MultiValue Visual Basic

Hi Tony,
I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but this is Canada. I know
there are a few diehard MV shops left, but most of them are either migrating
away, or they don't do enough business to hire new MV people (I know of one
other place in London that just layed off a UV programmer). The company I
was with (MediSolution), specialized in payroll and other
financial/administrative systems for hospitals. They had two payroll
systems (the UV system was an in-house system, while the other was
managed-services), and they have got rid of both of them now, with no
replacement as of yet. I know that getting rid of the UniVerse system was
because it was UniVerse, but getting rid of the other system (back-end was
COBOL, front-end .NET) was just a bad business decision on their part.

As for the existing clients, they are all in the process of migrating away
(the decisions have been made for various reasons, including MediSolution
telling them that there would be no more support for their UniVerse
systems), so there's probably not much anyone can do for these clients
specifically.

And I don't know if there even is a VAR in Canada for UV. Last time I
checked IBM's products website for Canada, I couldn't even find a mention of
UniVerse/UniData; I know that MediSolution licensed theire copies of UV from
Monolith Corp, which I believe is in New York.

Anyway, that's the state of MV in my neck of the woods. I've seen the lists
(and Richard Wilson had also sent me a list) of UV companies in Canada. In
Southwestern Ontario (where I live - between 1.5-2 hours drive from the
Greater Toronto Area), there are about 5 companies I can find within
reasonable driving distance that run UniVerse. Only one of them seems to be
doing any new business whatsoever (and, apparently, I'm next on the list to
be hired, whenever a postion comes open or gets created). But considering a
total population along the main highway here west of Toronto of about 4
million, I would think there should be more companies running an MV package.

Anyway, rant complete....

Dave.

PS - Yes, I have been involved in the mass migration away from UniVerse, but
only as a promoter of UniVerse and the whole MV model. But, as a
programmer, it seems that my opinion doesn't hold much water with the people
who make the decisions (plus, I'm not much of a salesman - that's why I got
into programming). I think there are a lot of programmers in that position
as well - they know the system is wondeful, and they can make it do whatever
the user wants, but they don't really have any say when it comes to
decisions being made by CEO's who are easily impressed by shiny GUIs.


"Tony Gravagno" <g6q3x9lu53001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:nfp4m19ru9naguk09b971hc0gq25khejsn@xxxxxxxxxx
> Dave - it distresses me that something this catastrophic happens (mass
> migration from MV) and we don't know about it in the MV market.
> Didn't someone step up to offer replacements to any company or office
> using MV? Didn't some entrepreneurial VAR recognize that a lot of MV
> users were suddenly without software or support and that a lot of MV
> talent was suddenly available? (Not quite sure how "payroll" fits
> into the equation of layoffs and migrations but...) There is some
> excellent Universe-based payroll software available for local use and
> via ASP model - do you know if this was considered as an alternative?
>
> It's bad enough that this sort of thing happens in our market. It's
> even worse when a chain of people seem to let it happen. I'm not
> getting down on you Dave, I'm upset with the situation as it seems to
> underscore the hopelessness of it all. Since you're still working
> with some of these users I highly recommend you have someone contact
> me or someone else with a market perspective so that we can see if
> there is something "someone" can do to keep the clients happy and keep
> them in the MV market.
>
> Regards and Good Luck in all of this. I'm glad my drivvel seems to be
> helping a little.
> T
>
> "Dave Mitchell" <mitch500@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>And therein lies the problem.... I have no employer. The company I was
>>with ditched their UniVerse payroll system back in March, and I was left
>>without a job (in fact, the entire office in my city has since shut down,
>>stranding more than just UV people). For the time being, I'm still
>>supporting some of the clients that were left hanging without support when
>>the company did that, but they are all migrating away from that system, so
>>this is only short-term. So basically, I would have no access to any of
>>that documentation. Although I have been using MSDN extensively to teach
>>myself VB6.
>


.

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