Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-project (265 mails)

[M Harris <harrismh777@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 02 May 2007 01:54, Silviu Marin-Caea wrote:
> >The reason I would purchase SLED, SLES is to receive world
> > class tiered support, printed documentation, voice support,
> > indemnification, etc.
>
> You are kidding yourself with the support story.  This just doesn't bring
> enough cash.  I don't see people buy support if the product runs well.  
> Novell would starve.  It's a vicious circle that I don't know an escape
> for.
        Not at all... Novell just hasn't figured it out yet...

        ... the idea of services and support does not imply that the product (SLED, 
SLES) does or does not work well.  In fact they should work very well... and 
Novell should have tiered support offerings for it.  Allow me to explain.

        Just monitor the mailing lists... any of them... I monitor about 100 mailing 
lists for many different products (I monitor *all* of the SUSE lists) and I 
notice that there is a huge demand for support services that has *nothing* 
whatever to do with bugs or the product not working well... it has everything 
to do with people wanting to know HOW TO DO SOMETHING and not having enough 
time or skill to RTFM.  --- and here is the big shocker for the Novell 
team... *they are willing to pay for it* !

        Picture an ISSC (International SUSE Support Center). This center is staffed 
with hundreds of service personnel who work multiple layers (tiers) of 
support.  
        1st tier) installation support-- 30 days, voice, fax
        2nd tier) bug report --free, fax, forum
        3rd tier) general software support service contract annual --- fax, forum
        4th tier) general software support service contract annual --- return call
        5th tier) general software support service contract annual --- live voice
        
        per call) general software support service --- 900 number, mintues rate

        Now, picture prepackaged software distribution of SLED (SLES) (if it were me 
I'd try to solicit HP as the provider) with a desktop hot-link for software 
service contract with ISSC ... there can actually be several locations 
(mirrored servers, etc Germany, India, United Kingdom, United States)  The 
folks who  purchase HP or DELL preloaded machines are going to need support 
for all kinds of things ---- and they are willing to pay for this service 
through annual service contract ---- I know, I've seen it work at the IBM 
Support Centers for over twenty years.  

        Look at it this way... monitor the forums and find every time someone asked 
how to config grub to do this or that... or how do I adjust my video, or how 
can I compile a kernel, or how do I make DVD work, or whatever... and then 
picture them being able to purchase the right to ask those questions from a 
competant support representative (get the correct answer quickly through 
whatever tier at an appropriate price) and pay for the right to ask. Instead 
of being told to RTFM they get their answer and they pay the bill, or they 
pay for their service contract.  As it is now folks pay hundreds of dollars 
for M$ products with limited support... but suppose instead that they pay 
limited dollars for the software and $150 dollars for an annual software 
support service contract from Novell... or Canonical... or ME...  there are 
literally billions of questions to be answered, and millions of people 
willing to pay for those answers... think about it.



-- 
Kind regards,

M Harris     <><
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