How crazy is enterprise tech support behind the scenes?

[Insomniator]

Company I work for is using a certain backup software that was just bought up by a huge player in the field.

The thing is... the software is just a complete mess. They release new builds every other week that fix old problems and cause new ones. They don't respond to support requests unless i have my supervisor personally email our rep complaining. The 'issues' are not small, but crippling (constant creation of millions of small files, unable to access backups after upgrades etc). Its basically become my full time job to get this software to work as best as I can get it to, which is barely.

So I imagine a support team just completely being bludgeoned with calls and demands from the clients... and i guess they are really at the mercy of the programmers to get their shit together? Or do you think its a big team where everyone does a bit of everything? How can a huge "Enterprise" class application be so bad, when there must be SO much pressure from companies that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this?

 

[Vdubchaos]

This is something that CAN and SHOULD only be done by the company themselves.

This is a direct result of some head huncho asshole cutting cost and contracting out EVERYTHING.

And no, they won't learn their lesson.

 

[iamwiz82]

Which software package?

 

[trmiv]

Is it Netbackup? Because Netbackup is a confusing, complicated, piece of shit.

 

[TwiceOver]

Enterprise as in the starship or as in the rental car agency?

 

[SpatiallyAware]

This is something that CAN and SHOULD only be done by the company themselves.

This is a direct result of some head huncho asshole cutting cost and contracting out EVERYTHING.

And no, they won't learn their lesson.

Exactly this. You should almost never outsource your own support departments.

Said head honcho likely contracted out support, waited 2 years to show 'massive' profits', then leaves to work elsewhere. Another year or so down the road and everything is falling apart.

 

[Kadarin]

When I worked support we used Siebel 7, which is a piece of absolute shit. In fact, the startup I worked for hated it so much that we ditched it in favor of Netsuite, which was better, but then we got bought by a corp that used Siebel, so we had to switch back.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If the engineers do their job right, and management stays out of their way, you have a product that is 99% reliable for 99% of your customers.

The flipside is that when somebody who paid seven figures for a software support agreement gives you a call at 4AM on a Saturday, you FIX IT NOW and, so help me, if you say "reboot it" one more time I will REACH THROUGH THIS PHONE AND STRANGLE YOU WITH YOUR OWN ENTRAILS YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF GEEK SQUAD GARBAGE!

*sigh*

I'd imagine if you worked for a good company with a solid product, enterprise level support would be pretty boring.

 

[MustISO]

I can tell you from experience it's the people making poor decisions who have no idea how programming and millions of lines of source code work.

Typically the program team and project management get requests from clients or vendors and want x number of new features in each release.

No one cares if it works except the developers and QA who aren't always heard. If the product was built on a poorly designed framework nothing is going to fix it besides going back and starting over. There's no financial incentive in that so they soldier on and release crap.

Then when they lose customers, they still won't fix the issue but they may lay off employees or make other unreasonable demands still ignoring the people who actually understand the product and the flaws.

 

[Anubis]

word on the street is that we are about to outsource non physicial desktop support

i cant fing wait

 

[acheron]

Considering how often the transporter and holodeck malfunction, yeah I bet Enterprise tech support is pretty crazy.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Considering how often the transporter and holodeck malfunction, yeah I bet Enterprise tech support is pretty crazy.

Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience, but the holodeck's manufacturer warranty doesn't cover damage from blood, semen, the venom that proto-klingons shot out of their necks, or other bodily fluids, and you will need a new holo-emitter. If you do not have any other issues you need assistance with today, I will be happy to transfer you to our parts sales department, where an associate will assist you with ordering a replacement.