INFORMIX SUPPORT

There has been a lot of discussion recently on the topic of INFORMIX support and the quality or otherwise of this service. INFORMIX personnel have jumped in to defend their service, which is only natural, and many comments have been made by users for and against the level of support which customers receive. This is all well and good, but what has it achieved? What do we all want out of INFORMIX Support? How much are we prepared for this service? How can INFORMIX make more information available to us, the user base, without divulging secrets to their competition? I worked in INFORMIX support for many years. I tried to give a good service to the users within the scope of my position, but I was unable to satisfy them all, all of the time. I appreciate the problems that Tech Support is under and I hope that my comments here are not merely seen as "sour grapes" because I don't work there any more. I am trying to be constructive! The demands that users place on tech support are many and varied. Some want to get instant solutions to problems, others want to discuss a "nitty-gritty" with somebody else, and others want to report what has happened and make sure that it doesn't happen again. It depends on the character of the people involved as to whether they are happy, sad, or not bothered about INFORMIX support. What really concerns me is that these same issues apply to all software and hardware support organisations that I have had dealings with. Are we missing something very fundamental here? Is there a different model of support for the industry which might solve these issues? I look for parallels in other industries:- Motor - a car is made up of hundreds of parts made by different manufacturers. But when it breaks we don't go to the maker of each part for a solution - instead we go to the dealer of the company that put the bits together. Health - this varies from country to country - but in the UK we go a General Practitioner who diagnoses the problem and either treats it themselves or refers the case to a higher authority. The Law - again with geographic variations - we visit a general lawyer who calls in specialists. Sport - this operates generally on a network of coaches and trainers who work at the level of the individual(s) involved. Every industry is different. Yet all have the same need, to provide a service to customers and keep them happy. It is clear from the discussions recently in this arena that the computer industry needs to provide a service to users - the only question is how? James Champy - at the recent INFORMIX Worldwide Users Conference - talked about the need to re-engineer the corporation. IMHO we need to "re-engineer the industry" to provide better, more efficient means of helping the wide variety of users. I would appreciate you constructive comments on where we, the users, want the industry to go, and how we, the users, would wish to finance this enterprise. Malcolm Weallans