Monday, February 25, 2013

It is Supposed to Work

A new solution, regardless if it is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution or a new desktop workstation, smart phone or any other piece of technology for that matter, has an expectation from the owner of a working, productive condition when it is new. 

After all, that is usually why older equipment is replaced.  There comes a time that the risk of downtime and inconvenience, support, maintenance and liability is outweighed by the replacement costs.  Most new hardware has increased performance and reduced energy consumption along with included initial warranty, that the Return on Investment (ROI) is quickly achieved.

Another reason for change is a switch in platform that necessitates different equipment.  Or, a new version that has new requirements that are not met easily with older equipment or would not run at all.  For example, how quickly did your new smart phone become obsolete after you purchased it?  Now do you consider yourself “stuck” in a two year contract?

New equipment is not immune to problems.  Especially in technology.    

For example, servers are tested thoroughly for compatibility, but even they are not immune to problems, even out-of-the-box.  As for computerized systems, it is why we add antivirus solutions as one of the very first steps.  We want to protect the equipment from getting corrupted from external influences. 

Workstations are even more prone to problems.  They have such varied sources of components that each one will work and operate differently.  Some will work fine until an operating system patch is applied that fixed a different system and now breaks another one.

Larger organizations have grown accustomed to the one-in-a-hundred systems not working as designed.  They average it out among all of the equipment and chock it up to the cost of technology.  Larger organizations also typically have in-house personnel to handle the deployment.  They have the resources to absorb the additional cost.  Averaged out, it is not too bad on budget and becomes part of the operating budget.

What happens to the small company that simply wants a new workstation to replace one that has grown old an unreliable and that new computer is one of the one-in-a-hundred?  They do not have an in-house person and rely totally on external help. 

There is so little margin on new equipment that installation, setup, configuration, testing, and deployment are charged services.  A long time ago there was money made by selling equipment and a vendor could throw in setup.  Today, there is too little margin and unless the vendor has a bunch of low paid people sitting around with nothing to do, they have to cover costs. 

Granted, a lot of new workstations set themselves up fairly well with a limited number of questions.  That is until there are so many patches that have to be initially applied that they fail due to incompatibility with themselves.  Microsoft comes to mind here.  I have personally worked on several machines lately that have had this problem.  The magnitude of updates have to be grouped and applied a few at a time.  Taking a lot of time to deploy.   You could ask why the vendor has not created a service pack to group all of the fixes properly.  Why are they creating an operating system that needs so many patches in the first place?  What is so hard about making a secure operating system that the world does not want to hack in the first place? 

There is no error free code, none, but when there are so many fixes, you start to wonder if the technology is based on faulty building blocks.

Apple is not immune to problems either, but due to their market share and proprietary systems, problems seem to be less frequent.  It makes a case for proprietary systems.  A consistent user experience that is reliable, stable, and works as designed.

Ultimately we get through the updates and get on to business and the inconvenience and expense is written off, but at what cost?  Is that customer satisfied that you did all that you could and did your very best.  Do they blame the manufacturer or the installer?

Who takes responsibility?

Usually, the client support person/company assumes the risk, reward, blame and success or failure.  Sometimes it really is just a spin of the wheel.  You get a good machine, you get a bad one.  You can write as much legal-ease as needed to cover yourself, but once the trust is gone, it is gone.

It is important to manage expectations.

Part of the trouble with technology is that people expect it to be like a blender or something less complex.   If technology worked the way it was designed, the first time, every time we would all be out of business. 

Regardless, it is not a matter of being right or wrong, it is a commitment to make things right that matters most.  A customer wants to know they have an advocate they can trust.  It goes back to a the theme I repeat weekly.  Customer service is and should always be the first priority.

We hope that your investment is worth the effort and you achieve the results you expect at a cost that is both predictable and manageable.  At Dolvin Consulting we are here to help.  We are human and have the same expectations that you do that new equipment should work as designed.  We also work hard to make things right when they do not go as planned.  Contact us today, if you feel the same way.


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