I am impressed with the quality and diversity of suggested options/ responses to Chris' post (e.g., change hardware configurations, replace SAS with other software options, work with a SAS-designated reseller). If nothing else, this thread demonstrates both the range and depth of SAS (and other software product) expertise held by people who read and post on SAS-L.

Personally, I'd be interested to know what happens if Chris' company says to the SAS sales rep: "look, this is what we are willing to pay for X amount of your products/software/modules for Y number of users. If you can't provide your product(s) for that price, we will either work with one of your resellers OR explore moving our applications off of SAS to other software products that cost less."

That would put SAS' sales rep in the position of either having to come up with a better price-point or risk losing the sale altogether. It's probably not good for the sales rep and his immediate chain of command to lose a customer, so they are probably going to want to work with you to keep you as a customer and get some revenue from you, rather than to lose you and have no revenue.

Some years back I recall reading a story about a software sales rep from another company who would tell his customers "My boss has not authorized me to lose your company as a customer, and I won't leave your office until we have an agreement." That's an effective way of saying "I am committed to keeping you as my company's customer and I am willing to work things out with you."

Hopefully SAS' sales rep has not been authorized to lose Chris' company as a SAS customer and will work to come up with a solution that makes everyone happy,

Andrew Karp Sierra Information Services www.SierraInformation.com