<snip> > In my experience I found that there are two main reasons a company buys > external support for its systems. > > First reason is to plan for future development. The company providing > support can investigate and give written assurance of compatibilities > for future acquisitions and advise of integration and scalability > issues. They can also share from other clients experience who use > similar systems and/or faced similar problems. > > The second reason is business insurance. Having certified support is a > contributing factor in saving on the business insurance premiums, > especially when it comes to IT.
There is a another one. The warm fuzzy feeling that a manager gets when they have bought "support" from a big name. You have no idea how important that can be. > There are other reasons too why a company may want or need support, but > I think it is outside the scope of this thread to elaborate as they are > not necessarily Linux related. Yes, see above <snip> > For best troubleshooting and continuity support the common practice is > either to hire in-house expertise, which I believe it is your company's > case because they hired you - and did a good job with it I might say - > or outsource the entire maintenance, with binding contractual SLAs and > penalties, to a company specialised in such activity. or both with the inside guy having the job of harassing the outside guys > So when qualifying companies for support, there are more factors to > consider on top of the quality of their technical expertise, which may > prove not to be the primary factor in their shortlisting. However, > certification or vendor endorsement has to be a must. In this case the certification is the problem. Who does the certification? What do they use as the criteria? > > Have I gone too OT here?... No you didn't. ( at least you didn't suggest BSD :-/) -- ------------------------------------------------- Zane Gilmore Development and Web Infrastructure Team Leader DDI: 325 9631 Cell:0276 319 206 Crop & Food Research : Mana Kai Rangahau http://www.crop.cri.nz -------------------------------------------------- Visit our website at http://www.crop.cri.nz ______________________________________________________ CAUTION: The information contained in this email is privileged and confidential. If you read this message and you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of all or part of the contents is prohibited. If you receive this message in error, please notify the sender immediately. Any opinions or views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not represent those of their employer.
