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To: jan m. who wrote (7038)	12/9/1997 5:53:00 PM
From: Jack Zahran	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 31646

Jan, I'll answer your question based on my consulting background and the little bit I have learned about TPRO's type of business. --"why would a company spend 7000 dollars for Topro's CD, when they could go directly to the manufacturer and have them do the fix." First, many companies will try and many will succeed at least partially to perform their own remediation. How many will attempt it on their own? We'll find out as early as Feb. 98 what the indicators are. The Indicators so far has been that the CD has already generated close to $4 Million in revenues since it's introduction. (This is an estimate based on the Quarterly report stating $1.5 Million to date and 2Million more by end Dec 97). Quite a success since at that point they were still waiting to solicit the product to Wonderware's 30K client base. Second, very few plants if any use parts from one manufacturer. And while some manufacturers are doing their best to indicate compliance problems with their chips, at this juncture it would be impossible for them to go back and test every chip in every single configuration they created. We are talking about an insanely great number of iterations on any particular design. Those pieces are then soldered on boards that contain chips from many different Manufacturers. The task for an in-house staff to do their work without some mechanism to automate or computerize the process is huge. That's why in-house engineers will insist on getting their hands on anything that will help them. The value of the CD is that the work has already been done once, the cost in man hours to duplicate TPRO's work is worth much more than $7K. Third, TPRO has already tested and used this product in some form or another while working on their clients plants. Their methodology is proven to work. They are not some firm who of late sense an oppurtunity and come out of the woodwork. They are the professional's in the field. How many companies can say they are truly experienced in Y2K embedded systems remediation. Not many, the Year 2000 problem has not come up in the past. TPRO's CD is a quick start to any company. If you know how these big companies work, you'll agree that if their Y2K plan hasn't gone through 10 years of committee's it's not ready yet. Forth, there has been a huge movement to outsource work that supports but is not a business' core competency. What does this mean? Companies do not want to employ engineers if the companies work is centered around something else such as bottling, manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, etc. As they need them they contract out to another firm to assist them. This way they can focus on their business. True, many will still have a small support staff, but this staff can't handle additional projects. (But, this point addresses more than the reason to buy the CD). Fifth, nobody in-house wants to do the job or the responsibility for it. Too much risk involved to put your job on the line for. Many consulting jobs that I get are for projects that others were scared to touch. An outsider is a great scapegoat since they usually are already gone and can't defend themselves when people need someone to kick. This reason is probably the least obvious, but the most prevalent. Anyway this may be more than you wanted. Take Care, JZ

To: jan m. who wrote (7038)	12/9/1997 6:16:00 PM
From: Quad Sevens	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 31646

"why would a company spend 7000 dollars for Topro's CD, when they could go directly to the manufacturer and have them do the fix." How do they know what to fix? Wade

To: jan m. who wrote (7038)	12/9/1997 9:03:00 PM
From: Steve Childs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 31646

Why would a company spend 7000 dollars for Topro's CD, when they could go directly to the manufacturer and have them do the fix? By now you've read four other answers, but here is Jenkin's answer to your question from the conference call: "So in a straight forward model, you've got somebody who buys 1 CD. He pays 4000 for that, he's going to pay 5 for the vendor compliance data base access, and he's then going to pay $200 per vendor compliance report. Most organizations that we're looking at on the small end of the "average range" would have at least 100 unique devices in their facility." 100 unique devices in a small facility. Before they fix the problems, they have to identify the problems. 30 - 40% of those devices will not be Y2K compliant. Without the CD a company would have to contact dozens of vendors, get round-a-bout answers, figure out which devices are non-compliant, and then oversee the entire remediation process, one device by one device; each vendor's timeline by each timeline. Not to mention that many devices are no longer supported by its original vendor. This process of simply assessing the situation, let alone fixing it, would shut down an IT department for weeks. No on-going concern can afford to do that. And, $20K -$35K in assessment fees amounts to loose change under the machinery in a multi-million dollar operation. By the way, Jenkins mentioned in the CC that large companies potentially have great negotiating leverage against that $20-35K pricetag. I hope Jenkins doesn't really believe that. If TPRO (and their CD) is the only game in town for both the assessment and remediation phase in embedded systems, with time running out, TPRO HAS ALL THE LEVERAGE in negotiating price. To Jenkins I say: Stand firm on your margins, and the business will come around anyway!!!