Vertex 2000: Post 1 of 2
This is the first of two posts regarding BMR Software's Vertex 2000 product.
Disclaimer: These posts are my own personal opinion, and the facts are not guaranteed to be accurate. Do your own due diligence before you invest in any publicly traded company. This is not intended to be used as investment advice, as I am not qualified to provide that.
I am not being compensated by anybody in any way for this writeup. I have no hidden agenda. I hold no position in TPII. I do hold positions in several other Y2K related issues which could be affected by the success or failure of Vertex 2000.
Those of you who know me from around SI are aware that I have given my technical analysis of other products as a result of demos or personal experience with the software itself. I try to provide a balanced view of the software. I am a world-class technical skeptic, with 24+ years of proprietary software development experience at firms well known in the software industry.
There ... that should take care of background info, legal mumbo-jumbo, and anything else that might get in the way.
I'll try to say things so that both techies and non-techies can understand it. This might require some stretching of the English language and grammar rules at times, so please forgive me. If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.
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Overview of the visit:
Bob Bemer offered me a one-on-one demo of Vertex 2000, and I gladly accepted the opportunity to participate. He and his tech assistant, Chuck Harvey, drove 125 miles from Phoenix to Sedona to give the demo in my house.
While Chuck was setting up his laptop for the dialup, Bob went over the phases of the demo that I would see. He also described the various situations that Vertex 2000 is capable of handling. Chuck then walked me through the demo, which he drove. I was permitted to ask any question throughout the demo. It was a real, live demo, using live COBOL II code on an MVS mainframe. This was similar to a demo that was given at the "Intergovernment Conference in Philadelphia on Nov 06-07, 1997", but was different in that I was asking some techie questions that according to Chuck nobody had ever asked before. Perhaps that's because the audiences they have been demo'ing to are more managerial than technical, or maybe it's because I've dealt with the Y2K enough to know where the gotchas are.
Note that I did not sign a non-disclosure agreement (they offered it to me, but I declined), so I was not permitted to see the technical 'guts' of the system. This wasn't a problem, because with my development background it was easy enough to postulate what was most likely occurring in some 'secret' places.
Chuck is a very good demo-giver. He has his 'script' down pat, but can take those quick twists and turns that were necessary when I asked techie questions. The demo went well, with no surprises. Of course, it was a live demo, so the connection to Dallas dropped once. Typical. Been there. Many times.
Bob and Chuck's visit ended amicably, with Bob leaving behind several pamphlets on Vertex 2000 and several articles of his from various publications. Bob offered me a chance to have my picture taken with him next to his vehicle that has an Arizona vanity license plate with the word "ASCII" on it. Maybe I should have taken him up on the offer. Who knows ... it might be worth something someday.
So much for the overview. The next post will be more specific about Vertex 2000, the tool.
Regards,
TED |
