A Death is Not Announced
30 September 2015!
I joined Quantime way back some 20 umpteenth years ago and started to learn a quirky software package called Quantum. It did tables, a bit of data editing and clients seemed to want to pay for us to produce these tables! All these years later it is still providing a living for many many Specwriters.
I am sure a number of the spec writing fraternity could put up convincing arguments that Quantum is the best product on the market at doing what it does. Equally, I am sure you can find a similar number to take up the opposite view and advocate their preferred package. But Quantum has struggled on and by and large has avoided any major bugs and hassles. It does what it says under the shrink wrap!
So what of it you may ask? Well, the other day I came across a small blog entry in the user forum that suggested that IBM no longer sells Quantum and further it advocated the 'new' suite of products. Oh, that is interesting I thought, so what of support and what of the future?
Investigating further I discover Quantum 5.8 was released in October 2004 and that 'Quantum is at the end of its life' and 'Yes, IBM is not selling Quantum to any new customers'. So, what of us dinosaurs, what can we expect?
I found that 30 September 2015 is its final day! After that Quantum will get no support from its parents, it is left to be an orphan or a dead man walking. My main concern here is not that Quantum is to stop being supported, that was inevitable and I am sure we have all started to move on. To be frank in the last 10 years Quantum has not had that much support, enhancements or for that matter any real need to develop.
My concern is more at the lack of respect for us users. Unless I am wrong I have not noticed any announcements of the end of Quantum as a product by IBM and looking at the SPSS website:
http://www.spss.com/software/data-collection/quantime/quantum.htm
I still see they are advocating it as a product. I think that this cash cow must have brought in a great deal of money over the years and I would have hoped for a little more respect for us users. It would seem to me that IBM really don’t care or can’t be that bothered by us in the Market Research sector, do they want us to buy the new products? It is this that concerns me most. I want my software provider to consider me as a customer and treat me with some respect and consideration, assuming they want me to migrate and keep purchasing products. Am I being too hopeful?
So, is this Quantum’s first obituary or a start of a campaign? That’s up to you to decide. If it is the former may I be the first to say thank you to Ed Ross and Heather Dyer for a piece of software that has survived 30+ years at arguably number 1 in its market. Quantum has never needed any radical overhaul or major redesign. Quite remarkable compared to how other software has changed over those years.
So, good bye old friend and thank you for all your hard work! Or maybe not just yet?
Mike Wooderson is Operations Director at Cobalt Sky
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