Having announced hardware price increases of 5% only at the beginning of March (CI No 1,375), IBM UK is notifying customers of another round of price increases covering almost everything and including one or two nasty stings. Hardware prices are generally rising by another 5%, making 10.25% for the year (percentages are like that), but this time, software, maintenance, engineering and education all go up – and while maintenance on most items apart from 4381 and 308X mainframes goes up 8% from January 1, maintenance on all AS/400 processors rises a swingeing 15%; the 15% rate also applies to obsolete 3350 disks and early model 3380s. Most packages and licensed programs go up by 10%, but Cadam software is up 15%, and VM/XA Systems Facility, ACF/VTAM v2, MVS/370 Data Facility, System 36 SSP and X25 NCP Packet Switch Interface all go up 20%. Another shock on the software front is that monthly licence payments are to be invoiced quarterly – in principle an improvement, but users will be billed quarterly in advance: terms will go out to 60 days from 30 days, which IBM reckons makes the change net neutral. Another nasty on the software front is that large mainframe users are going to have to pay more for a string of programs, such as CICS/VM and DPF/2, that previously carried a flat charge regardless of the processor. So where people with machines from Model Group 20 to 38 will pay 10% more, those with Groups 40, 50 and 60 will pay 13%, 16% and 20% more respectively. On the hardware front, the charges apply to anything not bought by September 1, and not ordered by August 31 for delivery by November 30. Excluded are 9370s, 3390 and 3990 disk drive and controller, RS/6000, 4381 upgrades, System/88, memory for the AS/400, and point-of-sale systems, plus most models of the PS/2. Education courses go up 10%.
