Certainty and the answer to everything…

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”

– Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970

But are you sure about that?

Three things to make life easier

Had another phone call from a market researcher. She wanted to know about components Realcom Applications use to build servers and PCs. I’m not the techie but in the role of “business development” for RA I get to field all these info-hungry marketing types.

Mostly a lot of nonsense about what percentage of PCs we sold with graphics cards but there was one question that was really worth while and I answered without hesitation: “What can manufacturers / suppliers do to make your business easier?”

My answers:

1.  Provide good, accurate technical information / specifications with all products and components before sale so we can see if the unit will actually do the job. There’s no excuse for manufacturers not to include specs on the web when they spend thousands on glossy boxes and brochures covered in marketing speak.

2. Slow down the rate of new product launches so we can get to really understand and test the products in a real environment before we roll it out big-time to clients. Often we just get on top of a product so we are confident we can install it in the wild when the product goes end-of-life and we start the learning process all over again!

3. Don’t send the general public the message that this stuff is all easy. Business IT is quite a lot different from consumer electronics. It needs design (or architecting!) of the IT infrastructure, on-going support  and business continuity issues. By making it look “childs play” (e.g. the IBM blade server ads) the manufacturers are undermining the value of systems architects and value added reselling - making the sale harder and eroding our profits. 

Hope someone other than a box-ticker reads the response to this question!