Newsgroups: bit.listserv.advanc-l
Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:48:29 MST
              <ADVANC-L@IDBSU.BITNET>
From:         Dan Lester <ALILESTE@IDBSU.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Enhancement note from Stanislaus
              10 Nov 1992 16:21:23 CST from <gahan@CWIS.UNOMAHA.EDU>

On Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:21:23 CST Mick Gahan said:
>I have to agree with P. Peters at CSU-Stanislaus, about GEAC
>"fixes" vs "enhancement requests."  Users' Group does not seem

   And so do I.

>to be communicating our needs well enough to GEAC, (or, perhaps,
>GEAC isn't listening loudly enough?) about our previous rounds
>of fixes and enhancements.

  Oh, no....they HAVE been communicated....and quite loudly and
vigorously.  Those of us who were in Dallas in September to meet
with Geac for several days were QUITE vocal (though hopefully we
remained civil and polite at all times).
   I'm not sure WHAT the problem is....but it STILL seems like a
"black hole", as all the information goes in, and nothing comes back
out.  Yes, this is one of my "standard lines", unfortunately....but I
wish it could be never used again.
   For example, there has been much more traffic on this list lately,
and ALL of it from customers (or possibly a few prospective customers).
There has been NO feedback or response from Geac, with one possible
small exception.
   I've been told that they don't reply on the list because "it isn't
fair to the customers who aren't on the network yet."  Bull.  Nonsense.
No one is asking that this be the only method of communicating to
or from Geac.  No one wants to cut out those who are not yet net connected.
But....it IS one method of communicating, and it is better than nothing.
What other communication is there?  Newsletters....sure...they can be
interesting.....but they are mainly promotional, which is fine.  They do
NOT address the kinds of problems and questions that go on here, or in
many undocumented phone calls, emails, and snailmails between various
individual sites.
   I have also been told that Geac doesn't want to respond here
because some of their competitors monitor the list.  Big deal.
Geac undoubtedly monitors the VTLS and Dynix and DRA lists, and THOSE
companies respond on the list.  I understand the interests in corporate
security and secrets, but this is a small enough community that most
everybody knows all the plans anyway, as well as where all the dead
bodies are buried.

>Many of GEAC's written replies to "requests to fix" suggest they
>didn't understand the original complaint/request from the user.

   Amen.  A fine example is the way circ handles the lost/billed books.
Whoever thought that up NEVER worked in a real, live library.
Same is true of upgrade requests, etc.

>HEY GEAC!  The users - your customers - want to communicate with
>you!  This means a TWO-way street.
>I'd really like to have GEAC assume responsibility for participating
>in these ADVANC-L conversations, and provide customer feedback as
>appropriate.

   YES!!!   Communicating with us here is NOT a disservice to those
not on the nets.  They talk with the rest of us.  This is NOT a secret
society.  I hope that the Users Group will continue to encourage others
to get net access.  There are MANY easy ways for people to get this
access, including through Compuserve and other similar services.  None
of them are free, but for a library that can afford an online system,
they are certainly affordable, at a few hundred dollars a year.
   Also, if there were interest, I would be willing to print out the
logs every month and mail them to the users who are NOT net connected.
Reading logs isn't quite the same as "being there" as a part of the
communication, but it's better than nothing, and may lead to more
phone calls, etc.

dan (Sec/Treas of Advance Users Group, and Listowner of Advanc-l, etc.)

*****************************************************************************
* Dan Lester                          Bitnet:   alileste@idbsu              *
* Associate University Librarian      Internet: alileste@idbsu.idbsu.edu    *
* Boise State University                                                    *
* Boise, Idaho  83725                 BSU and I have a deal: I don't speak  *
* 208-385-1234                        for them and they don't speak for me. *
*****************************************************************************
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