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Re: PC Fixer Lassos Customers the Old Fashioned Way: Free Services
Posted by: Jack M. Germain 2008-10-22 05:57:36
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Getting reliable and reasonably priced tech support for an ailing computer is time-consuming and frustrating. PC users at home, school and work face malfunctions caused by human error, software failure and hardware configuration glitches. On top of these problems are the increasing daily threats posed by malware and virus infections. The typical home or office user has no IT support to rescue them. A recent report from research firm IDC concludes that although technology is now deeply entwined in consumers' lives, consumer support options have not kept pace with needs.
Should have added to my previous post that the 'Mac guy' is pretty much on target.
I worked on both Mac's and PC's some time ago supporting about 500 of each in arranged in small LANs connecting to mainframes for certain tasks.
As study done for management showed that fully 92% of our time was spent supporting the PC base.
I love Macs (Disclosure - I worked for Apple for a time.), but when I went out on my own, my business plan had me supporting almost exclusively PCs. I would have starved to death if I focused on Mac support.
And before someone suggests I should have 'converted' my clients if the TCO for PCs is so much higher than Macs... the response is that many of my clients had software requirements that only were available in the PC / Windows environment. (This was before Intel Macs, BootCamp and Parallels.) Most of the rest were locked into PCs by what they used at work or their 'friends and neighbors' first level of support.
I worked on both Mac's and PC's some time ago supporting about 500 of each in arranged in small LANs connecting to mainframes for certain tasks.
As study done for management showed that fully 92% of our time was spent supporting the PC base.
I love Macs (Disclosure - I worked for Apple for a time.), but when I went out on my own, my business plan had me supporting almost exclusively PCs. I would have starved to death if I focused on Mac support.
And before someone suggests I should have 'converted' my clients if the TCO for PCs is so much higher than Macs... the response is that many of my clients had software requirements that only were available in the PC / Windows environment. (This was before Intel Macs, BootCamp and Parallels.) Most of the rest were locked into PCs by what they used at work or their 'friends and neighbors' first level of support.
Digital Support is really building an 'expert system'
Posted by: akcoyote 2008-10-22 15:33:57 In reply to: Jack M. Germain
Years ago General Electric's locomotive division was faced with the pending retirement of their absolute best troubleshooter. They had been trying to train (no pun intended) replacements for years without success. The replacements would reach a high degree of competence, but none ever managed to rise to the 'hit it right there with your ball peen hammer' level of instinctual expertise.
Short story, they proceeded to build one of, if not the first, 'expert system' by gathering all the input they could from their guy before he retired and managed to create a 'rules based' expert system that very often outperformed the flesh and blood experts.
There has been a lot of work done on expert systems since then of which 'Big Blue' IBM's chess playing computer is probably one of the most widely known.
Seems to me that Digital Support is trying to create an 'expert system' that is a combination of their expert's knowledge and using real world input to expand upon this base.
Computer hardware and software systems can be complex, but they are logical and can be reduced to a set of rules. (Even the neural net systems seem to follow this axiom.)
So their success will depend upon the number of problems they decide to solve. If they restrict the 'expertise' to the most common problems and leave the rarely seen problems to human intervention they stand good odds of successfully creating a cost-effective system.
Based upon my 40 years in the business, the most cost effective 'solution' to the rare problems is very often to reformat the disk and reload and failing that to buy a new computer.
There was a time when hardware repair down to the component level was cost effective because the hardware cost so much that relatively speaking people time was cheap. (I can recall spending over $6,000 for a 4 kb memory board. It was 15" square and populated with discrete transistors driving ferrite cores.)
Today I charge $75 per hour for my 'expertise' which translates to my clients being better off buying a new computer than paying me to chase a problem for more than 6 hours. Sticky software problems are often best resolved by backing up the data, reformatting the hard drive and reloading the software. Not exactly elegant, but quite practical.
Short story, they proceeded to build one of, if not the first, 'expert system' by gathering all the input they could from their guy before he retired and managed to create a 'rules based' expert system that very often outperformed the flesh and blood experts.
There has been a lot of work done on expert systems since then of which 'Big Blue' IBM's chess playing computer is probably one of the most widely known.
Seems to me that Digital Support is trying to create an 'expert system' that is a combination of their expert's knowledge and using real world input to expand upon this base.
Computer hardware and software systems can be complex, but they are logical and can be reduced to a set of rules. (Even the neural net systems seem to follow this axiom.)
So their success will depend upon the number of problems they decide to solve. If they restrict the 'expertise' to the most common problems and leave the rarely seen problems to human intervention they stand good odds of successfully creating a cost-effective system.
Based upon my 40 years in the business, the most cost effective 'solution' to the rare problems is very often to reformat the disk and reload and failing that to buy a new computer.
There was a time when hardware repair down to the component level was cost effective because the hardware cost so much that relatively speaking people time was cheap. (I can recall spending over $6,000 for a 4 kb memory board. It was 15" square and populated with discrete transistors driving ferrite cores.)
Today I charge $75 per hour for my 'expertise' which translates to my clients being better off buying a new computer than paying me to chase a problem for more than 6 hours. Sticky software problems are often best resolved by backing up the data, reformatting the hard drive and reloading the software. Not exactly elegant, but quite practical.
For consumers who don't want such problems, it's a simple solution: don't buy a PC with windows in the first place. I switched to the MAC 4 years ago and have never had the need of tech support, viruses or a system crash rendering all data lost. You may pay a bit more for a MAC but in the long run, it's cheaper and far less traumatic!
yeahright, you can't compare computers and cars like that, only because they both have windows...
My suggestion to a tech support company like this in terms of funding would be to solicitate it from the maker of the operating system in question; I'm sure it would serve (e.g.) Microsoft a great purpose - great advertising for one, as well as enabling the happy use of their OS to their customers...
My suggestion to a tech support company like this in terms of funding would be to solicitate it from the maker of the operating system in question; I'm sure it would serve (e.g.) Microsoft a great purpose - great advertising for one, as well as enabling the happy use of their OS to their customers...
Computers are very complex but most problems are SW and can be solved remotly by an experienced tech. That is not the case with a car as most of the problems with the car are "hardware" problems - i.e. a broken part that needs to be physically replaced. A tool like this could be valuable if used by someone who know what they are doing. The live support option is the one that will stick if any of them do.
Another stupid idea by a lame brain wannabe with no sense for the bus.
Posted by: yearight 2008-10-22 06:02:32 In reply to: Jack M. Germain
I think I'll call my doctor. I'm having a heart attack, and I wanna see if he can help me over the phone, then I'll call my mechanic, and let him repair my car remotely. Why is it idiots think a computer, which is more complex than the above, can be fixed with one-click automated solutions. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY, and if you knew ANYTHING about computers today, BESIDES what you read in the 20 year old books you read to get your worthless degrees, you'd know that.
