From: doelz@urz.unibas.ch
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Biosym's email support -- an example for SGI to follow?
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:27:28 MET
Organization: University of Basel, Switzerland

In article <1992Apr15.143825.22572@news.yale.edu>, dcs@neutron.chem.yale.edu (Dave Schweisguth) writes:

[...]
> 
> Many SGI users are no doubt familiar with Biosym. We've been very happy with
> Biosym's service, which includes an email address with no apparent limitations
> on use. I've reported bugs and RFE's and gotten my license files through it.
> Everything that's ever needed an answer has got one as far as I can recall.
> (I don't doubt that they'd cheerfully ignore me if I weren't a license holder.)
> 
More than that. There is a eMail list which is a user forum on which the 
discussion in between customers (== researchers) on the problems and 
peculiarities of this specific package can be discussed. The software is 
so powerful that sometimes real experts start to jump in in order to discuss
scientific background rather than missing commas in a command line argument :=)
This list has been maintained by Peter Shenkin the last lears and will be 
on DIBUG@comp.bioz.unibas.ch starting from April 20 (further announcement
will follow). 

> SGI's customer base is certainly larger, but I don't think it's that different
> qualitatively. How difficult could it be to scale up the operation? Perhaps
> someone from SGI could call Biosym and ask them how things are going?
> 
> BTW, my major interest in email support is due to the three-hour time
> difference between us and Mountain View. SGI's phone support has always been
> excellent _when they call back_, but it _always_ takes them much too long to do
> so.
> 

I must admit that this sounds more negative than it is. I know Biosym since 
years, and it was certainly easier to contact them as they were a 15 people 
company rather than today where they've been growing more than an order of 
magnitude. Similar growth at SGI: I remember that I had quite a few direct 
Mountain View contacts in 1988 whereas today the local office is only 10 
minutes away. But still, this NEWSgroup (or info-sgi) is such a nice forum 
that I still get advice within hours - Europe is 9 hours earlier than USA, 
and overnight replies happen rather frequently. 

Certainly, perfect answers are rare. And, answers can be given only to 
precise questions. So instead of banging the TAC with questions like 
'This just doesn't work' and on inquiry giving the more precise information 
'that it really doesn't work, I swear on it' I am afraid that the current SGI
setup is most beneficious to people who know what they are asking about. 
And the answers to these questions come promptly. 

Something that I agree on is that logistics might become better. Asking 
a local FE/SE on a special hard/software problem requires too many steps before 
the 'right' person gets asked. However, current trend is to get better, and I 
would like to see it improving with similar growth rate as in the past 
years.
 
Regards 
Reinhard 


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