2011/4/1 Raj Mathur (राज माथुर) <r...@linux-delhi.org>
> Background: > > The client is a large call-out business headquartered in NOIDA with call > centres in 5 other cities in India, including New Delhi. At the time we > started, they had no IT or automation on the call floor at all. > > <snip> Plugging a case for a more detailed note on this project: > > C. How the organisation is going to get support? Inhouse? services > > from vendors or consultants? Outsourced activity completely? > > L1 and hopefully L2 support will be handled within the organisation. T > and I have been working on documenting standard procedures, and in the > past 2 months or so most of them have been handed over to the client's > support team, along with some scripts that make life easier for them > (e.g. quickly make new users -- you wouldn't believe the employee > turnover these call centres have!). We still handle some L2 and most L3 > support, and that is likely to be the model going forward too. > > Incidentally, anyone with Linux technical competence interested in a > job? ;-) > > > <snip> > To sum up, it is possible to run call-out (and by extension call-in) > centres using purely FOSS tools and technologies. The two most > important things you need are: > > - A competent team or consultant who understands the technologies and > stumbling blocks involved, and > Adding the obigatory message of congratulations through all the snipping of your original post. I am sure with your expertise, that the solution was elegantly crafted, customised and met the customer's requirements. > - Commitment from the organisation's management and technical leaders to > the solution. > It does take two hands to clap. The CTO/technical leader who took this up is extemely gutsy and also deserves a place in the hall of fame. What I would really be interested in is a revisiting of this issue a few months down the line to see the effective response, resultant uptime and cost of the support mechansim you mentioned earlier. Please - at least - write up this aspect of the project as a white paper that we can circulate to govt. funded intstitutions. If you need help with the non-technical documentation and research, I can see if some students from our university can get involved in doing it as research project. I say this as I am fighting a losing battle over something like a network monitoring and management system. To much plugging for proprietary plug-and-play as it is an easy to understand product-based purchase, and the alternative is too much overhead - making the detailed spec for even a tender is beyond the capabilities of in-house staff. > Given these, there is no reason why a FOSS solution cannot surpass > proprietary, commercial solutions in features and performance, and > undercut it thoroughly where pricing is concerned. > > Another case for putting non-technical details together: Even if "undercut" - the expenditure on the project is distributed to the local community who are empowered by the use of FOSS. Although not of direct practical use such as a HOW-TO, documenting successful projects as examples of creating career opportunities and services has a wider benefit in advertising both to govt. and SMEs the capabilities of both FOSS, and of its community. Andrew _______________________________________________ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
