Economics of Support Costs (was: Cisco quality)

Wed May 22 18:09:19 UTC 2002

Rob Wrote:
        If C brand worked properly as shipped how would Cisco support
        services and other consultancys survive?

        It's a MUCH bigger market in consulting services and Rent-a-Expert
than
        the initial hardware/firmware sales.

        If Cisco shipped mostly working product then thousands of high
paying
        jobs would be lost and probably a billion or more support dollars
would
        never make the rounds in the economy.

        Microsoft and Cisco do the tech industry a HUGE favor by shipping
        misfunctional equipment/software to which consulting services and
        professional services can then step in and hawk their
        wares/bodys/solutions.

        If Cisco and Microsoft shipped properly working product the tech
        industry/economy would probably disintegrate!

        Once you understand the above, the technical industry starts to make
a
        little more sense; its consulting and professional support services
that
        drive the economy and not properly functioning gear!

        -Rob

Indulge me in an analogy:  Let's say I own a bakery.  Some punk throws a
rock through my window.  Well, now I have to either pay someone to fix the
window, leave it the way it is or try to repair it myself.  Since I don't
know anything about windows, and I really can't just leave it, I have to pay
someone to fix it.  According to Rob's school of thought, the economy has
been given a boost (albeit a very minor one) because I have temporarily
employed a window repair man.  Sounds logical at first.  Look at the
slippery slope: Wouldn't it be great for the economy if everyone went around
breaking windows?  Of course not, because people have better things to be
spending their money on than window repair.  There is no return on
investment for fixing a window.
The point is, if so much money is being spent on support costs, it's
actually a DRAIN on the economy because the money being spent on support
would likely be more productive and spent more wisely by the companies that
are now wasting money because of inferior hardware/software.  That
productivity could result in lower consumer prices which means you'd keep
more of your own money.  It means more money could be invested into new
products and services which would in turn create more jobs and more than
make up for the support jobs that would be lost by hardware/software that
needed very little support.
If those of us that provide support for a living weren't doing that would we
be just sitting at home?  Probably not.  If we were not supporting, we would
likely be innovating or in a different industry that was more productive
because they weren't paying so stinking much to support their
hardware/software.
Rob says that Microsoft and Cisco are doing the tech industry a favor but
they are not; they are only doing themselves a favor.  This applies
especially to Microsoft because people wait breathlessly for the next patch
or upgrade and then act as if M$ is doing them a favor by fixing something
that shouldn't have been broken to begin with.
Larry Diffey - Armchair Economist