[FUN] applause was ITK & Upgrades

[Stephen Mitschke]

[FUN] ITK & Upgrades Just how much does the buyer have to understand before entering into thepurchasing/specifying arena? Also note the quantity of questions andanswers prior to this thread surrounding othermigration/upgrade/revision/"old vs. new" hardware and software concerns.A simple analogy relative to software and firmware upgrades - What do I haveto know when I buy my next television? If it is digital, and I want to usemy old VCR, will either the manufacturer or the sales staff be forthcomingif I do not ask the right questions? And how about the cable box I alreadyhave? I think most service and sales persons will try put out goodinformation because it does no good to have an end user upset over false,misleading or withheld data. Hopefully the same is true with fieldbus, onlyto a much greater degree. One problem is that while most fieldbus devices are the "new, improved"variety, without a purge of all the pre-ITK devices, (or a moratorium on thetransfer of such devices outside their original installations), theopportunity for system contamination will remain. Also, requiring users tohave degrees in history (of fieldbus evolution) in order to determinesuitability based on historical compatibility issues, while great forconsultants, may not answer end user concerns either.The question, then, is - do sales and support staffs need "special" trainingso they can circumvent customer problems surrounding forward/backwardcompatibility (and a host of other functional issues)? If so, this mightmake the transition easier and also mitigate the need for all buyers tobecome expert on all things fieldbus. Of course while interoperabilityamong devices is out there, it does not promise an interchange ofinformation. Could there be any greater purpose for this newsgroup? Chuck Carter

[Stephen Mitschke]

Dear Ian,I fully sympathise with Chuck Carter. The problem in my personal opinionis that many customers are not as smart as they used to be. Before anyoneshoots me, this is due to the trend of focusing on core business andfarming out Engineering activities, such that the decisions are not made bypeople who will have technical ownership of the delivered systems.To use his analogy of the TV set, it is like asking a work colleague to goand get you a VCR because he is good at getting good deals, and thencomplaing he bought you VHS when all your old tapes are Betamax. The wayto do it is to go to someone who knows what questions to ask, that way youget what you want and not what you asked for. This means only talking topersons or organisations who are suitably experienced in these matters,which will cost you more in the short term but should be less hassleoverall.Unfortunately, as we move from discrete systems to integrated and bus basedsolutions, the definition of the right questions to ask gets fuzzy as thesnapshot status of the technology changes too rapidly, and technologyadvances tend to run faster than the standards intended to control them.Best RegardsIan Ramsay-ConnellSystems Sales Support ManagerYokogawa United Kingdom Ltd.