Re: Is RDi ready for prime time?

[Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aaron Bartell wrote:
> > Not IBM's fault.
> >     
>
> You bet it is.  If IBM has customers that can't easily get their opinions
> expressed because they have overly complicated the process, well, I would
> consider that a fault.  
>   
Wait a sec... Dave can't post because his company won't give him the 
customer number to post with, and you can't because you can't figure out 
the right one.  Neither of those problems is IBM's fault.  Dave has an 
organizational issue, and you can't be bothered to pick up the phone one 
time and figure out the right number.  Sorry, neither of those strikes 
me as a problem with IBM.

Although I do agree that they should allow DCRs to be posted by IBM ID.  
I think that's a really, really good suggestion for Sam Palmisano's page.

> After reading your post I also realize a lot of my practices come from
> dwelling on and posting to open source lists for my requests.  I don't
> expect IBM to fully operate like an open source group, but I do expect them
> to take the best of that world (the things that work) and apply it to their
> own model to further their business and in the end my success as a customer.
>   

I agree 100% that it should be easier.  Of course, IBM isn't a 
monolithic entity as we would like to believe, and like any large 
organization their various business practices have grown organically and 
often at odds with one another.

I don't know if today's practice of using a specific customer number 
helps them to log and/or organize the requests.  It might be difficult 
to route a request using only the IBM ID for someone in a company with 
literally dozens of different IBM products spread over a global network 
of computers.  I guess what they would need is an uber-site that 
encompassed every business unit within IBM that you could then navigate 
to your respective product.  But think about it; that would be one 
immense site.  With an open source project, you just go to that 
project's wiki or forum and enter something there, and even then it's 
sometimes difficult to pick the correct forum in which to post.  Could 
you imagine the number of boards, sub-boards, and sub-sub-boards IBM 
would need to cover all of their products?

Anyway, my overall point is that as long as the ideal process is not yet 
in place, you still need to use the current process, and posting here is 
not that process.  Just my half a nickel.

Joe