The Value of Time

From Slashdot 6-16-05
antdude writes "Mobile Magazine tested companies' technical support
for their notebooks/laptops. Each test had three calls to each of ten
major notebook manufacturers (added three additional vendors since last
year). Also, called three third-party providers of PC help. On the
whole, what they found was a sea of ignorance -- and annoying fixation
with pinning down our name, address, and serial numbers. Things haven't
gotten any better since our 2004 test -- and most of the vendors we
tested have actually gotten worse..."

Technical support for the consumer market is, for the most part, horrific. Everyone has a war story to tell about what terrible support (or lack thereof) they got for their laptop, PVR, PDA, phone service, bank service, etc.

The main problem with the consumer market vs. the business market is that consumers think that their time is "free." They may have to wait on hold for 85 minutes with <insert manufacturer's name here> only to be told that it's a Microsoft problem. (These folks are almost always using Windows) Then they chase that avenue down. Three trips to the local major retail chain later, they might finally get a solution. But, they don't see the eight hours they spent on this as a loss. To them, therefore, spending more money on better and faster support doesn't make sense.

Businesses do understand this concept (usually). For them, time that the laptop is not working is time that is not spent on producing or selling their products and services. Most larger businesses will either have a dedicated staff or outsourced company providing support, or they will buy the best level of support available.

The problem comes for the business people who are on their own for tech support (self-employed, very small company, branch office, etc.) who may not be able to afford the gold-plated support options, but who still value their time and are given the unfortunate choice sucking it up with the consumer masses or having to pay through the nose for business level support.

We believe that this category is only going to get larger over time, so we have set out to solve this problem. RoamingSystems SLA is designed to provide the same type of IT support and asset management you would normally have in a larger enterprise. So for the entrepreneurs leaving the large organization to strike out on their own, there is a comfort level in knowing that someone else is taking care of making sure they have a working computer when and where they need it.