The sun is beginning to set

I never understood the way ACI handled the Base24 sunset. When the policy was first announced I was amazed. The need to move forward is understandable. But why endanger your leading market position in a way that creates opportunities for your competitors and displeases your customers at the same time?

Well, maybe there were other considerations as well. Perhaps ACI needed to focus their resources on Base24-eps and cannot effectively do that by supporting two major and very different products at the same time. Maybe they did their homework and realized that Base24 classic, while undeniably being a great cash cow and the product with the largest market share, is a dying beast which is slowly being displaced by more modern systems. Perhaps they projected into the future and, after seeing that they're losing their leading position one installation at a time, discovered that a radical change in policy was both inevitable and necessary.

Whatever the reasons, it's now official: the sunset of Base24 classic has forced customers to get out there and look for alternatives. They may not be out there not en masse, and they may have totally different outlooks depending on corporate culture, but it's definitely happening.

I've recently gone through the exercise of responding to an RFP for Base24 classic replacement. Three things are very clear.

1. The customer is aggravated. The feeling is not exactly oozing out of the pages of the RFP, but it's clear that they didn't like their hand being forced.
2. The customer is aware that a lengthy migration is inevitable, they have no delusions about that.
3. The existing Base24 classic installation was modified to incredible lengths, which is understandable if one realizes that the system has been in place for well over a decade.

I don't know what will the result of the RFP process be. Perhaps the customer will opt to continue with ACI and migrate to Base24-eps or choose another system from a different vendor and start fresh. One thing that I doubt is their staying with Base24 classic. I'm betting that the CFO will be part of the evaluation process and have his say, evaluating license and services costs and breaking them down to a five-year ROI sheet to see if the change is warranted from a financial standpoint of view. Monetary concerns are very important, especially in the current environment. But the writing on the wall is clear: Base24 classic is not here to stay. It's not dead but it may start to smell funny very soon.