-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 James Hill wrote: > Hello BizDev Mailing List, > > I was wondering if any of you would be kind enough to answer a few > questions regarding your experiences with openoffice in the commercial > world. > > I run a business in the UK thats mission is to bring open source > software to the business world, and I'm looking into the viability of > promoting and supporting openoffice.
I'm promoting and supporting open source software including Mozilla's Firefox and Thunderbird, OpenPGP, OpenOffice.org and integrating smaller open source programs into my products. I charge for my time and give a certain level of support without charge and an hourly rate otherwise. The logos (used with permission) look great on my business card too. Using OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird and OpenPGP I've helped a group of independent social workers and their audio typist to "increase their throughput by 20%" as they can now send secure emails/documents and upload PGP-encrypted audio files to their audio typist for transcription. There's definitely a market :-) > The basic model is to charge businesses a yearly fee, and in return > install openoffice and upgrade it once a year, and offer support > services. > > What I would like to know is: > > Once OpenOffice is installed on a typical windows desktop, how often > will people be likely to ask for support? I have only got it on about six desktops but I can't think of any cases where I've had any major problems. Users sometimes need assistance with more-than-average complex numbering/formatting needs and those who aren't spreadsheet-savvy need a bit of hand-holding but other than that I have no problems. Documentation for most of the open source products is always the down point though; I have wanted to point a user at the help on several occasions but I know it is either insufficient or not clearly laid out. And yes I do know that I can contribute to making the documentation better, I hope to do this one day :-) > How much support is typically asked for? (How long does the typical > issue take to resolve). I'd say I get support requests rarely, less than once a month. Issues can take a few minutes or up to an hour depending. Again, this is more to do with somewhat more complex use, and is to be expected with users who are less experienced with word processing/spreadsheet use. However, I did spend a couple of hours trying to update another customer's MS Office installation as installing some service pack kept deleting the whole Office directory. :-) > Is anyone in the UK offering OpenOffice support already? If so, maybe > we can team up. If not, would anyone be interested in using my > support services? You might want to look at the consultants directory at: http://bizdev.openoffice.org/consultants.html as there are a few other UK businesses out there. I'm in the UK (Petersfield, Hampshire) and I'd be more than happy to share support, ideas or problem solving - it's always useful to add to one's network and open source is all about sharing for the better of the community! - -- Adam Piggott, Proprietor, Proactive Services (Computing). http://www.proactiveservices.co.uk/ Professional, friendly computer support. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (MingW32) iD8DBQFEGuG37uRVdtPsXDkRAv3PAKCRPHV1Qi1tOuiY4nk+BySudUvzigCeIaNO 7llqK9JlRGvwzEh6XnJcrZw= =dXpo -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
