time for a revolution!!!

I’ve been pretty harsh on captive services orgs. I wrote about a number of failings they have recently. To switch it around a little I wrote quite a bit about this in my book Transitional Services, the concept of captive services organizations bridging the gap between product complexity and the customer.

I know you can always hire a smart guy, but the reality of the world is the smart guy charges more each time you have to hire him. It’s the same model used by drug dealers (a taste to create dependence). You become dependent on the smart guy and you need those services.

The reality behind this diatribe is that software solutions are too complex. This requires the captive services organization, but as a customer why shouldn’t I start asking for simplicity? If I am going to buy a solution from a company, why should I have to pay for the consulting that is required to build and operate the solution? Sure if they have to fly someone in from another place I should pay for the travel and expenses – that is fair. I should also have to pay a small amount, call it the overuse fee. If I have to pay something I won’t overuse the service (ever wonder why gas stations charge for air now? First they can, second people used the air station and never bought gas ergo now everyone pays for both).

So from this I have my new rules for captive services:

Document the problems you solve and make that available (this is beyond TechNet and msdn for Microsoft and Oracle.com for Oracle) build the fixes back into the installers for the applications.
Charge me for travel, charge me for some level of the cost of the resource but frankly the shame is yours if you charge me beyond market rate. Its really your problem not mine. (the government has never had to bail out a company in the software industry.)
Share your IP. Oh yeah and the next time I hire one of your consultants make sure that you’ve shared your internal tribal knowledge about me as your customer. I don’t want to train every one of your consultants in how I do business.
Over the next 5 years make your solutions easier.
Document those solutions better.
Share.

It is time for a revolution.

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