To: Mr Logic who wrote (14504 ) 4/9/1998 8:33:00 PM From: Willing2 Read Replies (4) | Respond to of 31646
>Let's hear someone knowledgeable try to tell us that the CD is anything else than what I described it as.< The CD is much more than the superficial generalization you have made describing it. Now that that has been said, before you attempt to discredit my knowledge of the topic, and since this information is not in my thread bio: I worked as an engineer, field service engineer, project manager, manager, and salesman for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) over a period of 19 years. A fair portion of that time was spent involved with a variety of plc systems and their components in applications like making soap, publishing and broadcasting, controlling sensitive processes in the medical and IC fabrication industries [ever hear of DEC's ALPHA chip?] and manufacturing computer assemblies for a large document handling company. > TAVA does have competitors in this area, that's the point. ... This is bread and butter to Project Managers, particularly if they work for a consulting house bodyshop and specialise in plant floor stuff. < Thank you for making this important point. TAVA does indeed have competitors, only we call them strategic alliances. Keane Associates, Wonder Ware, R.W. Beck, and others have franchised the TAVA CD and database for use with their clients. These are the project managers that are out there making TAVA money. When they need additional expertise, they bring in TAVA engineers, and pay TAVA well for that expertise. There are also other firms providing competition in markets where TAVA isn't a participant. They can have the small business market. TAVA will be too busy with the KO, BMY, GM, big businesses to even think about those markets. Besides, this help (competition?) is needed to get the up stream component vendors that supply GM, BMY, KO, etc. compliant. They are also a ready market for the CD and database since few of these competitors will want to duplicate work that has already been done when they can simply buy it, use it and pass on the cost to their customers. Though TAVA engineers have the expertise to provide a complete solution (and will themselves bring in specialists where needed), the value they bring to companies like KO and BMY is that of highly skilled engineering project management. When I was working for DEC as a field engineer I worked on computers used in applications I didn't understand (nuclear medicine research, flight simulators, HVAC, etc.) I (well, DEC) was hired to fix a problem. I worked with my customer, who thoroughly understood his application and how it was designed to work, to isolate and repair or replace the failing system. Like the TAVA engineering staff, I brought expertise that the client didn't have and the project management skills to resolve the problem more quickly than the client could have by himself. Yes, there were many clients who had their own in-house engineering and maintenance staffs. When the job was beyond their expertise, manpower availability, or was time critical they called in DEC. I didn't have to be an expert in their particular application. I did what TAVA is doing now -- helped them fix the problem so they could continue to do their business. Sometimes the down stream result of my "visit" was a redesign of the process. This is what TAVA is doing with KO in some plants: replacing an outdated process control systems with a new one that is Y2K compliant as well as improved in efficiency and control.> I think half the people here must think it [CD] somehow fixes year 2000 problems. It doesn't. OK, maybe it diagnoses and tests equipment? wrong again. It doesn't do that either.< Perhaps, if you paid more attention to what has been written here by other intelligent, informed, and well educated people, you wouldn't be so quick to make statements like the above. You have made some good points in your contributions, to date. Unfortunately, many of them get lost or ignored -- or are overshadowed by such remarks. If you want responses to your content don't obscure it behind remarks that will draw emotional responses. In debating, the person who resorts to personal attacks or gross generalizations is already defeated. You would be well advised to consider restructuring your contributions to make a single point (or question) with supportive facts or reasoning and let it stand on its own merits for response. Try it and see. You might get more positive responses, and fewer people skipping over your contributions.