How many times have you had a problem with your computer, and the software simply would not do what you knew it was supposed to do? (Mac users are exempt from this question.) It always seems as though the software that we spend good money on licensing, then even more money on upgrading (when was the last time you purchased a copy of Microsoft Office?) should perform better than it does. For now, we will accept the fact that software is going to be buggy, and that it will always have conflicts with some other obscure program that you have installed on your computer.

Moving along… WHEN these incidents happen to you, or you simply cannot get your new software to install properly, whom do you call?

a. Some simply have a knack for learning software and are willing to dig in the trenches to figure out why software is working right, either from trial and error, or from the knowledge base of an obscure web site. I would guess that if you totaled the amount of time these individuals spend in their lifetime on troubleshooting software, it is a close second to sleep.

b. Some of us have the luxury of having a friend (see a.) who is willing to listen to all of his/her other friends who start a conversation with "Have you ever seen this…?" These people have a tendency to take what they have learned from fixing their own problems and apply it to the problems of their friends. (Troubleshooting software has now just surpassed sleep.)

c. For the rest of us average users who do not fit (or no longer fit) a or b, there is tech support, right? Well if you are in a company that has an IT administration staff, this often proves to be a dead end. If you want to install your own software on your corporate laptop (i.e. RealPlayer, Napster, Instant Messenger, AOL, etc) you might as well hang it up now, since many will only support the official company sanctioned software. There are good reasons for this, since it does make it easier to support huge numbers of users, but that doesn't provide much comfort when all you want to do is listen to the college basketball game on your notebook!

d. So you think that you are to your last resort, manufacturer tech support, but wait! They won't support your version of the software, since it is marked 'OEM'. What does this mean? Your computer manufacturer is responsible for supporting you! Often, they only support you for 90 days past the purchase of your computer before you have to pay. I bet I am not the only one that flinches at paying $35 per incident for support from someone who very well may know less than I!

So what's left? By now, either the software bug wasn't important enough to deal with anyway, or you are so far into it that you find yourself on your way to sleep deprivation.

 

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Jody Thomas is CEO of Kayye Consulting, a firm that specializes in providing marketing services, business development consulting and training development to dealers, manufacturers and other companies in the professional audiovisual industry. He has developed 12 years of industry experience through his diverse roles with NEC Technologies and dealer / integrators, and now applies his experience through Kayye Consulting. He can be reached at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at jthomas@kayye.com.

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