🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3122@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk> jpa@newcastle.ac.uk (John Aspden) writes:
>Recently it was reported that FullWrite had finally hit the shelves of
>Computer stores in the USA, but that the boxes were adorned with
>stickers saying something to the effect "For sale in US and Canada
>only - not for export". It was speculated that this may be because the
>program contained an implementation of the DES encryption
>standard.
> 
>"Here in the UK, we are also making changes. Soon, you will be
>seeing stickers on the boxes containing our software informing you
>that they are the official UK versions. The stickers themselves will be
>serialised to prevent others forging them."
> 
>So there you have it. Any comments?

Yeah, I have some comments...

I place I work at is the national supplier of microcomputer software
to universities. This means that we support some programs very well.
It also means that we always try to get the program quickly and cheaply.

I recently contacted Ashton Tate in order to get a site license of
FullWrite for our university. The first thing they did was send my
message to the Finnish representative of Ashton Tate. Now this company
isn't really interested in the Macintosh. In Finland the Macintosh is
very popular in universities, but it will still take some time for
businesses to catch on. They really weren't interested in even selling
anything to us... Actually what they did was send me a letter asking
me to contact my boss (they saw that the request came from a university
and tried to forward me to the national microcomputer software support)

My boss then tried to talk with them and get us some version to use...
Nothing has happened in Finland since then.

I would really like to make FullWrite the Macintosh standard in
Finnish government offices and universities, but if it is not
available, we'll probably have to recommend MS Word and try to live
with a probably bad decision.

There seems to be some confusion inside Ashton Tate too. A few weeks
after they had forwarded my request to Finland, they sent me a FAX
asking me to contact Ashton Tate in Holland. The Dutch Ashton Tate
naturally has been very silent after I contacted them.

I know the Finnish market is very small, but it still is a part of
a significant market: the international market.

The Finnish software vendors offer virtually no quality support for
their products. They often send their customers to us even when they
know that we can officially give our help only to universities. PC
programs are another story: some programs are so hard to use or
otherwise requires a lot of support. This support must be provided
in order to sell the program and this support exists in Finland.

So, is Ashton Tate interested in making a deal with us? We are no
longer really interested in trying to get Jersoft interested.

Disclaimer:	The opinions here are mine and might not reflect those of
		my employer.

		Juri Munkki
		Helsinki University of Technology Computing Centre
		Microcomputing Support Division
		Otakaari 1, Room Y250A
		SF02150 Espoo, Finland

Internet:       jmunkki@santra.hut.fi
Bitnet:         jmunkki@fingate.bitnet
Telex:          125161 htkk sf
TeleFAX:        +358 0 465 077