EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE DAYS?
The week immediately following the release of OS/2 CONNECT is normally our busiest in terms of feedback from our readership. People want to respond to letters in the Sound Off! section, they provide us with additional updates to our lists, and provide us with input to our new OS/2 Product Priority List. As you probably know, I try to personally respond to each piece of e-mail we receive, at least to acknowledge receipt. The two weeks following the release of our June issue were no different for us. We received considerable response from the readership but unfortunately we ran into a snag this time. A hardware error occurred affecting a key hard drive on the computer causing us to reformat the drive and reinstall from backup. All was going well until we discovered a critical error in one of our backup tapes, causing us to go back to a two week old backup tape. Needless to say, this did wonders for my personality. It is not a lot of fun reformatting a sizable hard drive, re-installing an operating system and a two-week old backup, and then try to reconstruct what you did for two weeks.
Although it took us some time to recover, we finally got back on track with minimal loss. However, I fear a few things have slipped through the cracks, particularly one or two e-mails for the "Sound Off!" section and the "OS/2 Product Priority List" - if you do not see your letter or suggestion in this issue, please accept my humble apology and do not hesitate to re-send it to me. I will make every effort to rectify things.
OS/2 PRODUCT PRIORITY LIST
We have received considerable praise for the first printing of our priority list in the June issue. The letters we received, some of which are included in the Sound Off! section, were from users both far and near who were supportive of our efforts. As promised, I e-mailed a letter about the list to key IBM personnel and released a press release on the Internet (appearing in the OS/2 News & Announcements section of the Usenet Newsgroups - NNTP, and The Best of OS/2 "Newswire"). Unfortunately, we have yet to receive an official response from IBM regarding the list. Although we have heard from some IBMers inside the PSP division working on OS/2 (who greatly appreciated the thought that went into the list by users), no one from IBM has come forward in an official capacity to comment on the list. This is most disturbing since the suggestions are coming from real-life practitioners of the product and reflect what the users want out of the product.
More suggestions were received since the last issue of the newsletter and, consequently, we have re-generated the priority list as promised. Now it is a matter of getting IBM's attention. (Has anyone got a 2 X 4 handy?)
INTERNET ADVERTISING COMPUTER (IAC)
With this issue of OS/2 CONNECT we are pleased to announce a totally new OS/2 based product, the Internet Advertising Computer (IAC), a complete turnkey solution for small to medium-sized businesses for developing a presence on the Internet (we call it "NetVertising"). The IAC is a product developed jointly by MBA and John Meroth of Tampa. Our objective is to develop a simple yet effective approach for a company to promote their products on the Internet without the burden of learning a lot about the technology.
We selected OS/2 as our operating platform for the product for a lot of the reasons you, as OS/2 enthusiasts, already understand. Our major concerns were Internet access (ease-of-connection and use), platform stability, and true multitasking. We believe we will not regret our decision. Be sure to check out the IAC in the Products section of the newsletter.
EVER ORDER A THINKPAD FROM IBM?
I did and boy was it a headache. Last month I received my annual shareholders report from IBM which included a special offer to purchase various IBM hardware and software products at discounted prices, including ThinkPads. Because we were working on the IAC and knowing that I would need a laptop to demonstrate the new product, I called to place an order.
The first roadblock I encountered was when I asked for a ThinkPad with OS/2 preloaded. Of course they didn't have one and the order taker was bewildered as to why I would want it ("OS/2 is primarily for business users" - yea, and what am I, chop liver?). Knowing I had an extra copy of OS/2 Warp 4 in storage, I didn't let this impede the order and I moved on. (As an aside, I wonder if Bill Gates made the IBM PC Company an offer on Win95 they couldn't refuse; such as giving it to them for an outrageously low price in exchange for not preloading OS/2?).
The next step in the process was to send IBM a check covering the costs of the product, which we did without hesitation. However, we sent them a check from a money-market account as opposed to one from a bank. The check was perfectly legitimate but IBM and its check-authorization company, Telecheck, rejected it and sent it back to us without consulting us about the problem. Of course, several days passed before the snafu was brought to our attention and before IBM could retrieve the check. After much delay I finally called to cancel the order and asked to speak to a supervisor who instead of being sympathetic to our problem accused us of being a trouble-maker (you know, "the customer").
This was too much for me to tolerate and so I wrote Lou Gerstner a letter about my plight. Basically, I wrote what bothered me most was that the people I had been dealing with were not problem solvers and would rather rationalize their inability to satisfy the customer. Enter Wendy Fuller. Just a few scant days after mailing the letter I received a phone call from a Gerstner assistant, Ms. Fuller, who looked into my problem and immediately rectified the situation to my satisfaction. It was refreshing to see what a "can do" attitude can do over a "can't do" attitude. I was impressed. However, Wendy's attitude needs to permeate throughout all levels of IBM, from top-down, including the Personal Software Products division. It was apparent to me that Ms. Fuller was motivated by customer satisfaction. As a stockholder, I would like to see all of IBM's divisions be motivated in this regard.
SUMMARY
Although it has been fun initiating a new product like the Internet Advertising Computer, I will probably remember May 1997 as one snafu after another. I kind of wish I had hibernated through it. Hopefully, the remainder of June will be more tolerable. Isn't that when IBM's consent decree is to be lifted?
Keep the faith.
Copyright © MBA 1997
