Re: What to do when your ISP off-shores tech support

["Martin Hannigan" <martin () theicelandguy com>]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 2:14 PM, Todd Vierling <tv () pobox com> wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 2:01 AM, Mark Foster <blakjak () blakjak net> wrote:


> All of the above is solely my opinion, and definitely represents an
> experience-diluted version of my personal ideals.  While I generally
> agree from a business perspective that offshoring of operations can be
> a lucrative cost-cutting measure, the key problem in most such
> arrangements is that the operations and systems
> (hardware/software/networks as applicable) are not *all* offshored at
> once.  When these bits do not exist in relatively close proximity to
> each other, communications between their responsible folks grinds to a
> halt.
Thanks, this makes sense. I'm not sure if I support off shoring or not as
related to quality, but there is certainly a a business case to to be made
supporting it as this thread ending up pointing out. There are trade offs
which matter more to some than others.

Overall, my own off shoring experience is a mixed bag. United Airlines does
it and I usually suspect they are off shored when bad recommendations for
reservations or changes are relayed and I end up asking the possibly off
shore agents to make no changes and let me get online or stand in line to
get it done right. Cisco does this and while I haven't spoken to the Belgium
TAC in some time, it was pretty darn good and an example of how to do it
right.

YMMV,

Martin



-- 
Martin Hannigan                               martin () theicelandguy com
p: +16178216079