Why do businesses continue to play musical chairs with their computer systems? This approach certainly keeps a lot of people employed, but is it worthwhile? No business wants to fall behind and lose its competitive edge, which helps to explain why so many businesses are constantly searching for a new system to lead them into the future. Fortunately, in the real world, another family of systems was available to provide a competitive advantage to your business without causing major expenses and disruptions. Perhaps this explains why more than 700,000 multiuser commercial systems from Rochester were installed in businesses worldwide during the past 15 years. No one else even comes close.

To return one last time to the message we started with in Chapter 1: The staying power of any computer system and its ability to protect the investment of its customers is still the most important consideration when you purchase a business computer. The reason the AS/400 is the most successful multiuser business computer ever made is that it meets the needs of businesses, and it has staying power. The fact that it accomplishes all this with the most sophisticated architecture and the latest technologies beneath its covers doesn’t hurt.