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[metvas]

Hello All:
For those of you being set up in SQI I have NOT made your accounts there will do fist thing AM. Just use pssws and usr name I leftyou with before.
Thxs
Regards
Darrell

[cintyram]

I joined this thread a little late i suppose.
but here is my solution.

1. paid support is sold in units of time or instances.
  eg: 30 tickets or 3 months. which ever is longer. so if you file 200 ticekts in 3 months, you have to buy more time. if you want to file a ticket after the three months.
        if you file only 15 in 3 months, you can file the remaining 15 as long as you want. [ maybe before 6 months expire etc.]

2. paid members can file tickets, which can be looked at by the forum. or if a solution is already available, they will be directed.  but by filing a ticket, the paying customer will have a definite closure on teh issue.
  eg: if i have a problem and file a ticket, some one will come and help me until my issue is resolved to my satisfaction or it is identified that it cannot be resolved now and a course of action is shared with me. This guarantee is what i would be paying for.

3. the infrastrucuture we need can be really simple, we can just use any system like bugzilla or trac. any system that handles tickets.

4. regarding payment, we should use a system similar to yahoo answers. the customer decides who helped most and will award points, the points get translated to dollars by some ratio  eg: Kocil, Jonvan and LLL help me with a particular problem, i note that fact when i close the ticket.  So Vec and darrel can divide the points for that issue [ lets say this is a difficult issue and is worth 90 points, easy 10 points].
At the end of a period say 3 months, Kocil has 1000 points in his account, he gets a percentage of the revenue proportional to his score of points.

5. Darrel can recruit some people from the forum to be dedicated to the responses. they get some points for just showing up and addressing the issue. if they help resolve it, extra points.

6. Tickets are readable to everyone, but writable only for those who sign up for it.
    paying customers are also regular forum members. but they also get an account in the ticket system.
    only they have write access to ticket system. not the other forum members.



My role:
  I can:  help others if they sign up to help with implementation.
            help with defining the use model and moderating discussion on this.
            help with defining the business model and moderating a discussion on that.

 I cannot: guarantee a response time < 2 days.
               directly contribute time and effort for implementation.
 
Please share your views.
Thanks
cheers
ram

[metvas]

Hi cintyram:
Thanks for the ideas. With the system at SQI which is RT the tracking of each admin per ticket is automatically logged. So that is taken care of. Should you have further questions or suggestions please let me know and I will do my best to answer them.
The page for prepaid is almost finished it will be on our home page. Have some issues with CSS that have to be ironed out.
regards
Darrell

[metvas]

BTW cintyram:
You can goto vector.ecosq.com/ic/ to have a look around.
regards
Darrell

[cintyram]

hi darrell,
 how do i get a log in to edit some of the pages on that link?
thanks
cheers
ram

[metvas]

Hi cintyram:
OK your account is in. Can you let me know if you have edit rights when you login.
thxs
Darrell

[metvas]

Hello All:
Update with Vector and Pre-insalled and pre-paid tech support. As far as I know the machines are still moving at MadTux. I finished the page to advertise these seervices with the help of telemaniaka one of our members who gave it a final review. Robert has the package and I am waiting for him to put it up. Still don't know the access info for our site. We have one Small dropdown box on one page at MadTux and we received two orders, will see what happens when we have it on our own page. Thumbs up I hope.
Over at SQI the creator of SQI Jeff Elpern has been graciously making modifications to his system to further streamling our experience there. Now it is getting to remind me of Vector. Fast, sleek and easy to use without dumming down. You can have a look around at vector.ecosq.com/ic, please don't click on the email links for support.
The system is seamless and more changes to come.
Once the page is up and no further changes are required, we roll it all out. I am excited that the first Enterprise project for Vector has come together so well and as per our original intentions, and that does not happen to often. Without the help of the Vector Community this would never have come to be.  Good work guys and gals
Thank -You... All.
Regards
Darrell

[dawnsboy]

I like the idea of a new computer pre-installed with VL.  Everything should work out of the box.  That will make it easier to convert family members from windows to linux. I can buy one for my 15 year old daughter for her birthday and be in time to have her comfortable with it before the school year starts.   

[nubcnubdo]

AskSlashdot thread: ticket tracking and customer management (7-29-07)

http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/07/07/29/1914203.shtml

[metvas]

Hello All:
Sorry to be out of the loop but had some business to take care of out of town. Just got in last night. I was out of range for cell and Internet.
Some great news though. We are going full steam ahead with this endeavour. I have discussed several ideas to generate revenue the most promising immediate ways are pre-paid help and Google adds. We will also be shifting our host to an alternate DNS early next week. We will be using Python and moin moin mark-up exclusively, due to its simplicity. Although HTML and PHP code we currently use will execute beautifully.
The structure of VL will also be changing. There will be VL development and a separate VL enterprise. More news on this in a few days. Robert feels more comfortable with development and I will head up enterprise. This is the first division of VL since we began so the process will take some time to develop into their separate identities.
Will get back with the details I have by the end of the week. So lots in the works. I am excited about this division, and see only positive outcomes for VL.
Thanks
Regards
Darrell

[metvas]

Hello Ali:
The final base structure of VL Enterprise has been crafted, I feel we will all be happy with it as we have maintained the spirit of "OPEN SOURCE", along side Enterprise. Above all, it will be CHOICE that matters.
The descriptive description with screen shots will be posted here today.
regards
Darrell

[metvas]

So here it is:
VL Enterprise will have it's own identity, but maintain it's integrity within VL and Open Source. Paid Support and SQI Knowledge Center will be presented and managed as additions to what is currently working for VL and not as a major change.
 The income stream from pre-paid technical help will be a choice and not a requirement. Our current forum will be maintained in it's current identity. A summary is normally for the end of a document. However I thought it wise to put it first with details following.

1. The "Community Support" via the Bulletin Board  

 * Broad community that builds momentum for VL
 *hobbyist  based  - does not address mainstream users needs. An example would be a new M$ user, who is not accustom to text scripts  but only GUI environments. This user may or may not ever learn or understand or ever want to learn or understand the use of text scripts. Their preception of Linux as a non GUI environment scares them away by mere preception, but may be willing to pay for that information. Much the same way as taking my vehicle for transmission servicing, because I do not understand it and frankly do not ever wish to. Thus I pay for that service.
 * Generates answers to issues
 * see https://sqi.ecosq.com/ic/openCIE

2. Information Center

 *A public "self-service" support site that has Problem/Solution Knowledge Units.
 see https://vector.ecosq.com/ic/FAQs  and https://vector.ecosq.com/ic/HowTos
 * Structured Content (not free form discussion)
 * Problem / Solution format
 * Material present in mainstream user "context"
 * Structured format enables search to return solution in first or second link
 * Authors guarantee quality of solutions
 * Generates income to VL via Google Adwords
Screen shot of input page:
https://vector.ecosq.com/ic/?action=ContributorStats

You will notice the colors get lighter as they move to the right. This displays a lighter color as the input goes down, it darkens as the input increases. I cannot show you this site stats page as it is behind the login page. Will see if I can get it to you. If you already have an account set up within SQI then contact me for further instructions. This page gives merit to the contributor(s) driving the input.

3. Paid Support

 * Direct support from VL/SQI members
 * Timely response guaranteed
 * Issues driven to conclusion

All revenue will be split between those driving pre-paid support on a percentage/involvement basis. Involvement is logged per contributor through RT. It is envisioned that a surplus would go towards trade shows or other means of promoting VL. A commodity we dearly need to popularize VL to were it truly belongs. http://www.desktoplinux.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey.cgi?view=archive&id=0813200712407
So there you have it. We feel that this model accomplishes a great deal in holding to the principals of Open Source. While allowing VL to enter the arena of Enterprise.

Regards
Darrell

[easuter]

Hmmm...

Won't enterprise customers also be interested in 64bit builds too?
What about full source code + build scripts?
What about repository management for this variant (enterprises probably need app security patches a lot faster than regular users are ready to wait for...)?
Won't enterprises expect a regular release cycle (arghhh...always release when ready!)

Sorry if I sound skeptical, but seeing as VL's developers work is already pretty heavy, and repository maintenance is not exactly 100% guaranteed 100% of the time....

[metvas]

Hi easuter:
Thanks for the comments.
The simple answer is no, no and no. VL is what it is no more no less. We don't and never have moved mountains. We do what we can with what we have. Should someone request those parameters you are suggesting, I think I would suggest they move to an alternate distro pay 10 times as much as we are charging and refund their money. Have not seen any complaints thus far and would not expect any like those anyway. Hope this answers your questions.
regards
Darrell

[easuter]

Should someone request those parameters you are suggesting, I think I would suggest they move to an alternate distro pay 10 times as much as we are charging and refund their money.

Fair enough...though source code is pretty important to be fully GPL compliant, and maybe thats why we haven't been slapped by the GPL Compliance Lab because we are not one of the big cheeses (yet)...