| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1910.1 | qual can't test everything | WRKSYS::HOUSE | Kenny House, Workstations Engineering | Mon Mar 31 1997 19:20 | 13 |
| The Digital Personal Workstations are usually discussed in the
WRKSYS::XL_PERSONAL_WORKSTATION conference (press KP7).
The brief answer, though, is that the 15-inch monitor wasn't tested in
qual, so it's not supported, hence it's not included in Miata's System
and Options Catalog (SOC) entry. If it's not an option for Miata, we
do you think the order shouldn't be rejected?
A somewhat longer answer has to do with DIGITAL's wanting to get
revenue for a monitor sale we might not otherwise get. But I won't get
into that here.
-- Kenny House
|
| 1910.2 | customer focused? NOT!! | WRKSYS::SCHUMANN | | Mon Mar 31 1997 20:41 | 6 |
| re .0 This is absurd. It's experiences like this that convince customers
that we're idiots or scoundrels or both.
Bob Palmer, Why do you tolerate this stuff??
--RS
|
| 1910.3 | We're not (quite) impossible to do business with | BBPBV1::WALLACE | john wallace @ bbp. +44 860 675093 | Tue Apr 01 1997 04:57 | 10 |
| Put it in two separate orders, or "whatever it takes" to fool our
business processes into thinking the two items are unrelated.
Of course, that assumes the account team are willing to carry the risk
if it happens to fail in some obscure way. (In this case, it won't, but
there are other areas where that might happen when folk order unqual'd
configs).
regards
john
|
| 1910.4 | Send in the clones! | STAR::JACOBI | Paul A. Jacobi - OpenVMS Development | Tue Apr 01 1997 10:39 | 19 |
|
Requiring a monitor purchase is pretty standard practice among
Dell/Micron/Gateway PC vendors. Most don't actually *require* a
monitor, but the price usually includes the monitor, and you are
allowed only a minimal deduction (~$100) if your remove the monitor from
the configuration.
So, if you are picky like me, and don't want to get stuck with a
"Gateway Crystal Scan" monitor, then you go out any buy your own
motherboard, build your own system, then choose your own monitor. In
the same manner, the Alpha motherboards available from Hudson enable
you to custom build an Alpha workstation with whatever components that
you want. Of course, building your own system does take some effort.
You can either do the work yourself, or pay one of the Alpha clone
vendors to build, configure and test a custom system.
-Paul
|
| 1910.5 | sales prevention -> declining revenue -> losses | WRKSYS::SCHUMANN | | Tue Apr 01 1997 12:21 | 9 |
| As far as I know, we do have an SBB config that does not have a monitor,
and we quote a price for that piece. You then add a monitor a la carte.
So far so good. The issue is whether the customer will be "permitted"
to buy a 15" monitor instead of the 17" and larger monitors that are
"supported" with the system.
This is sales prevention, pure and simple.
--RS
|
| 1910.6 | We still have internal and external competition! | JULIET::HATTRUP_JA | Jim Hattrup, Santa Clara, CA | Tue Apr 01 1997 14:49 | 12 |
| It is also a lot of unnecessary make work that is completely useless.
Sales, Order Entry, Planning, and Manufacturing (and us noters) have
all wasted time on this order for no real useful reason. They will do
3 to 5 times the effort on this one order than should be necessary.
On the bright side, this is an example of how much easy improvement is
still available in our operations.
To me, it would seem that either the monitor qual process is broken,
or order entry is broken (why not accept with 'customer specified'
monitor), or just outright lack of interest in this business (not a
marketed config).
|
| 1910.7 | Communication with the customer | ASGMKA::DAY | | Wed Apr 02 1997 14:19 | 17 |
| Thanks to all for your explanations and discussion.
I explained to the customer that the 15-inch monitor is not an officially
quaulified and supported option and that order processing did what they are
supposed to do. Of course, the monitor will almost certainly work; and
he has two options: 1) put the system and the monitor on two separate orders
(A monitor is not mandatory on a PWS order.), or 2) order a 17-inch monitor if
he wants to be absolutely certain of no problems.
The customer was quite unhappy about this and expressed his sincere concern,
as a system integrator whose business is "90% Digital", over the way Digital
is choosing to do business in cases like this, that we need to be aware of the
importance of openness and shouldn't be telling the customers what they are
permitted and not permitted to buy from us.
Rich
|
| 1910.8 | | TLE::REAGAN | All of this chaos makes perfect sense | Wed Apr 02 1997 16:25 | 8 |
| On the other hand, Digital let me order some 7200rpm drives along with
a storage box that didn't support 7200rpm drives. I sure wish the
system would have at least told me that the parts on the order aren't
supported together and asked for confirmation to proceed. Needless to
say, I had to panic when the system came to get the right box and
cables.
-John
|