MANMAN and a 3000 in new Ohio action
November 18, 2013
Just when you thought the HP 3000 and MPE were done with new installations, along comes a manufacturer to put another system online.
If you break it down, this kind of event needs a few elements to succeed today.
1. A license structure for software (apps and utilities) that is low-budget. Extending third party licenses, for example, rather than buying new ones.
2. In-house expertise to manage and maintain a new system -- or if not in-house, then in-organization
3. A requirement for inexpensive HP hardware for the install. Because if you're going to put something online that has an HP badge on it today, you'll want component redundancy. Think spare CPUs and CPU boards.
The 3000 install was mentioned during last week's CAMUS manufacturing RUG conference call. Measurement Specialties has been a MANMAN manufacturing app and 3000 supporter for so long that ERP Director Terry Simpkins was even used by HP to testify about the integrated 3000 solution. In print. In an ad. Remember print ads for computer systems? HP even bought a few in the 1990s.
Simpkins wasn't at his usual spot during the CAMUS call because he was in Ohio, we were told, working on another outpost in the MSI network. There's more than a dozen worldwide, with many outside of North America. There were years when Simpkins was in China for weeks on end.
A 3000 owner who maintains their own applications, written in house, is in a similar situation to a site installing MANMAN from source code. In fact, they have a lot in common. One of the reports from users on that RUG call was that most of the efficient operations in MANMAN come from mods. No, not the rockers from the Sixties in Britain. It's short for modifications, of course, custom programming either built in-house or bought from a consulting and support house.
Back in 2011, the MSI IT Director Bob Andreini had a staff of 32 to help him manage operations. Simpkins was responsible for MSI's ERP implementation and support, with a primary focus on MANMAN.
Simpkins has been asked in the past why new operations in MSI go online running MANMAN, sometimes resulting in a 3000 coming online. His answer: "We are using HP 3000 systems for general ledger, accounts payable, inventory control, purchasing, production scheduling, order entry, and invoicing." Way back in 2008 there were 11 locations around the world, "and we have a substantial investment in its continued operation."
Measurement Specialties has been a self-maintainer of its 3000 hardware for more than a decade. They've done their own independent support. Simpkins been a clear speaker along the lines of Teddy Roosevelt for as long as I've known him. 13 years ago HP was trying to assert that IT managers were not looking at platforms anymore when they deployed apps, just the software. Here's the exchange we had in a Q&A for the Newswire.
HP likes to tell us in the press that IT managers at your level don’t make deployment decisions around platforms anymore, that applications are the only thing that matters. What do you believe?
I think that’s bullshit. If I’m looking for an application and I find two that run equally well, and one of them runs on a platform I already have expertise with, I’m all over that one. I don’t believe that we’re all in a heterogeneous environment, or that we want to be in one. I’m not afraid of a heterogeneous environment, but why do I want to add complexity to my life if I don’t have to?