Here's an update to my suggestion that some of you might want to consider
getting DIFAX from Unisys instead of Alden.
Our current DIFAX agreement with Unisys ends on Sep 30. I contacted Mike
Porreca at Unisys to set up the next year's blanket purchase order for DIFAX.
He told me that there would have to be a price increase for the service. That
didn't surprise me, everything costs more today than it did yesterday. Then he
told me what the increase was and I was surprised.
For educational institutions, the price is going from $300.00 per year to
$3300.00 per year. That's a modest 1000% increase. He said it costs Unisys over
$300.00 just to process the paperwork for one school. It sounds as though they
intend to pass the costs for their bad management practices along to their
customers.
Needless to say, we will not be getting DIFAX from Unisys next year.
He did tip Unisys's hand a bit. He said "Where else are you going to get DIFAX?" Sounds
as though they've been following the Alden epic, too. And then he said "If Unidata were to
contract with us, instead of individual schools, then the schools could get DIFAX for $300.00 per
year." The quotations are approximations, I never bothered to learn shorthand. The dollar
costs are exact, however.
Sorry if I raised anyone's expectations. I guess we'll just learn to live
without DIFAX. This is sad, because Dan Vietor has created a really neat PNG
format version of DIFAX and it's as good as any other DIFAX product I've ever
seen.
Larry
