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From: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Netpower: encourage HP to improve customer services
Message-ID: <1002@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 17 Jul 90 18:55:21 GMT
References: <1990Jul6.015817.23710@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> <4310127@hpindda.HP.COM>
Reply-To: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Organization: Intuitive Systems, Mountain View, CA: +1 (415) 966-1151
Lines: 72

Dan Herington of IND writes:

> I found out that since much of the internet is privately and/or publically
> funded for non-profit purposes, it is absolutely NOT kosher to support a
> commercial product using the internet.

That's interesting when you consider:

   - Bug reports and defect reports can be sent via email to
     at least: Sun, DEC, MIPS and Apple...

   - Software updates can be obtained via FTP from Apple.Com
     as well as the MIT X Consortium and others.

   - Many smaller companies list their email address as the *main*
     point of contact for their support channels, including my most
     recent -- and positive -- experience with Saber Software, where
     I reported some installation problems to "saber%saber.uucp@harvard.edu"
     [or something like that] and 24 hours later I had a definitive answer.

Whether or not the letter of the law allows or prohibits such activities, 
it's clearly the case that it's the wave of the future, and that a lot of
companies are realizing that electronic communication can make both customers
and employees lives easier AND make the all-important turnaround time between 
problem report and problem resolution shorter.  Even more importantly, when 
a mechanism like "notes" / "news" is used, the problem of communicating prior 
reports & fixes to the customer base comes for free (imagine; never having 
to search through the SSB's because you can simply type "/topic/m" and find 
old discussion of the topic).

John Young, in his column a few "Measure"'s ago, talked about the need to
lessen the turnaround time between problems being reported and their 
resolution getting out not only to the customer who reported the problem,
but to the rest of the customer base to ensure that each HP customer
has the least buggy environment within which to run their business.  I
think Mr. Young talked about "mission critical Unix" in the same column.

Also, HP can get a bit more aggressive about this whole issue too, and, for
example, offer anonymous UUCP connections for customer sites, so that they
can connect to an HP machine (of which there are an awful lot around the 
world) and then, with a LOCAL call, get their requests/reports into the 
HP internal network cheaply.  The email can then be internally routed to
get to the appropriate mailbox without any problems of public or non-HP
private networks.

One reference point I recommend is reading my editorial/column on this
very subject in "The HP Chronicle" (*), in The Inside Track, May 1990.

I think that using CompuServe is a *VERY BAD IDEA* and not even worth
the effort.  if you're going to solve support problems for Unix users
in the Unix community, then do it in a *unix* or unix compatible way.
I can't imagine that many, if any, current or future HP-UX/DomainOS
customers are going to be willing to learn how to navigate through
the CompuServe system (not to mention the monthly cost and hassle).

I am shocked that the possibility of CompuServe as a solution to this
thorny problem has gotten sufficiently far that it was mentined in an
external-to-HP posting.  Can we find out what other alternatives have
been considered and how CompuServe managed to rise to the top?  What
about other (mediocre) HP solutions like SupportLine?  At least that
has the advantage of being free for customers (unlike CompuServe).

						-- Dave Taylor

(*) The HP Chronicle is an independent non-HP publication from 
    PCI of Austin, Texas.  For subscription information, please
    call them directly at (800) 888-5093 or (512) 250-5518.

Intuitive Systems			         Unix Editor
Mountain View, California		[HP] Workstation Magazine

taylor@limbo.intuitive.com    or   {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor