Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 13:36:44 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>, Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD into larget corp. environment? Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.94.970117124207.6634A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <11447.853497856@time.cdrom.com>
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On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > My view is that phone-in tech support (as an initial contact) is > > an inherently flawed approach. You cannot possibly pay what anyone > > good enough can get doing other work (nor would they want to do it). > > It is especially problematic with a small staff. The person who > > So you think that the customer won't insist on talking to a human > being as an initial contact? I guess I really don't have a good feel > for how customers regard email as an effective support tool these > days. If they're comfortable with the idea of just sending a message > into the void and expecting some sort of timely response back from us, > well, I guess I certainly won't argue. I'm just not entirely certain > of that latter point. I think what you have to offer is a world-wide network of experts; and ultimately these experts are going to be contacted by electronic mail. Initial contact by telephone can be done cheaply by an answering service--which is just like the doctor's answering service. Someone will call you later. Or it can be done expensively with a couple of graduate students in an office. They might be able to answer some questions but if it's a sophisticated problem they're going to send out electronic mail too. > > > But the point is really to do something rather than nothing, and > > starting with phone-in tech support from an office is sufficiently > > daunting in terms of costs and organization that it is unlikely to > > get done at all. And it seems important that something be offered, > > even if it is not perfect. > > So, I guess what you're saying is that there are already enough bodies > who are willing to work through a company like FreeBSD, Inc that we > could present a credible tech support picture to FreeBSD sites? Actually this is a question you are better able to answer than I. But it does seem that there are a lot of experts reading the FreeBSD mailing lists (and many of them answering questions); and quite a few of them might be willing to read another mailing list with the possibility of getting paid for answering questions. > > Hmmmmm. And who's going to be the business manager for this again? > This sounds suspiciously like a lot of ongoing paperwork. :-) You should probably break down the tasks of a "business manager" and figure out what you really need. Maybe like this: --someone who does the billing and someone (preferably someone else) who writes the checks and keeps the books. Most of this can be done electronically (I could describe in more detail how I think it might work) but I don't see it as a lot of ongoing paperwork. There are good bookkeeping programs for DOS/Windows some of which will even generate tax returns for you. :) These are the jobs of a controller and a treasurer, if we want to give them names. (The controller can also send out the request for evaluation of service received.) --doing sales pitches, negotiating contracts: this may be a sort of "business manager" type of job, but actually this should be geographically distributed--someone writes in and says we'd like to talk about your commercial support; they can phone or visit someone in the area. The basic task here is to answer the messages. --management: basically management shouldn't have any ongoing tasks except a) watching the mailing list and intervening if something seems not to be going well and b) reading the evaluation reports and taking appropriate action. What you have to do to get this going is a little more complicated; the experts have to be lined up and a contract has to be signed; you have to decide on the corporate structure and its ownership (possibly stock options or whatever for the experts); and you have to develop a description of the service and write it up. In terms of contacting potential customers, it would seem that FreeBSD has superb mailing lists for doing this! And you need a contract for customers to sign. It would be very helpful to have a lawyer to work on some of this; probably the most expensive part unless you use the part ownership/ stock option carrot. -- > > Jordan > Annelise
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