Re: [WDSCi-L] Support channels (was: Is RDi ready for prime time?)

Joe,

Sorry but you need to read my earlier post:
http://archive.midrange.com/wdsci-l/200802/msg00340.html

I've found the DCR process to be a black whole. I something in and
nothing ever comes back out after the first blip that I'm supposed to hear
from someone within 90 or 180 days. (I don't recall.) Perhaps people
still recognize your name and respond, but I've got nothing. I know that
someone else here has had a similar experience.

That said, I've never seen a PMR dropped. If you're talking about a bug,
IBM follows up on those for months and months until it's resolved. It's
just that getting the right customer number can be a challenge. Also,
there is a limit as to how many people can open a PMR. At our shop it's
me and the system administrator. However, I have at times gone for months
trying to get the currently appropriate customer number to use for a PMR.
Everytime we upgrade our system or whatever, it seems we get a new
customer number. If we're allowed to open a PMR under one of the old
numbers, it is under the condition that we may be billed the current
hourly rate if they can't verify our right to support.

Aaron's right. The process is overly complicated even when it does work.

That's my half-nickel's worth.

Michael

wdsci-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 02/09/2008 07:09:01 PM:

date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 13:46:45 -0600
from: Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: [WDSCI-L] Is RDi ready for prime time?

Aaron Bartell wrote:

Not IBM's fault.

You bet it is. If IBM has customers that can't easily get their

opinions

expressed because they have overly complicated the process, well, I

would

consider that a fault.

Wait a sec... Dave can't post because his company won't give him the
customer number to post with, and you can't because you can't figure out

the right one. Neither of those problems is IBM's fault. Dave has an
organizational issue, and you can't be bothered to pick up the phone one

time and figure out the right number. Sorry, neither of those strikes
me as a problem with IBM.

Although I do agree that they should allow DCRs to be posted by IBM ID.
I think that's a really, really good suggestion for Sam Palmisano's

page.

After reading your post I also realize a lot of my practices come from
dwelling on and posting to open source lists for my requests. I don't
expect IBM to fully operate like an open source group, but I do expect

them

to take the best of that world (the things that work) and apply it to

their

own model to further their business and in the end my success as

acustomer.

I agree 100% that it should be easier. Of course, IBM isn't a
monolithic entity as we would like to believe, and like any large
organization their various business practices have grown organically and

often at odds with one another.

I don't know if today's practice of using a specific customer number
helps them to log and/or organize the requests. It might be difficult
to route a request using only the IBM ID for someone in a company with
literally dozens of different IBM products spread over a global network
of computers. I guess what they would need is an uber-site that
encompassed every business unit within IBM that you could then navigate
to your respective product. But think about it; that would be one
immense site. With an open source project, you just go to that
project's wiki or forum and enter something there, and even then it's
sometimes difficult to pick the correct forum in which to post. Could
you imagine the number of boards, sub-boards, and sub-sub-boards IBM
would need to cover all of their products?

Anyway, my overall point is that as long as the ideal process is not yet

in place, you still need to use the current process, and posting here is

not that process. Just my half a nickel.

Joe