What would Kevin O'Leary value it at? :-p
----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Johnson via Af" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:38:28 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I wasn't responding to get into an argument with you. You are obviously free to do whatever you want, and handle your customers however you see fit. I was simply explaining from my perspective what I am seeing today, and what I saw while building Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :) I also own part of the fastest growing software companies in Utah. We have 20+ full-time developers and current customers like Nike, Google, eBay, Nordstroms, Toms, Disney and Vistaprint to name a few. The company has been in business for less than a year and already has a valuation of $6,000,000 from a national institutional investor that invested a month ago. I'm pretty familiar with the software development scene, especially in Utah. :) Good luck with your app, I hope it works out for you. Travis On 11/20/2014 2:19 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > Wrong on both counts. > > I used to be in software development, so like anything else, it's who you > know. > I can get this done for a lot less. > > And having an app for the customer to view and fix or find problems on their > own is a differentiator itself. > Every one of my customers I've talked to about this has expressed great > interest in not having to call in if they can help it. > > I'm guessing a few of the older generation won't have a phone or care to use > an app, they can always call in. > > But in general it looks like it will greatly reduce support overhead for the > ISP and increase customer satisfaction at the same time. > > I guess time will tell. > > I already have this underway, parts are developed already, but if someone > wants to help out, let me know! > > -----Original Message----- > From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:15 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Sterling, > > This sounds like an easy task, but I can tell you as someone that is > currently developing software, and is starting December 1 to build a simple > iPhone app, software development is very expensive. My app is a pretty > simple... easy to use front-end with a cloud based database back-end... yet > the quotes I have gotten are $50,000 - $75,000. This is from 3 different > development companies all based in Utah. All of them are busy and each has > 20+ full-time developers working for them, so they have enough business and > must not be totally out of line on their quotes. > > I said this 10+ years ago, and I'll say it again... customer service is the > only thing that makes you different than the big cable and telco companies. > Having a live person that can help people troubleshoot and fix issues is the > key to keeping people with your service. If you are just going to send them > to an app on their phones, you become the same as every other provider... and > your service becomes a commodity just like everyone else. > > Travis > > On 11/20/2014 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: >> BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes >> out completely. >> >> They fall back to 3/4G. >> >> Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end >> and tell the customer the status. >> >> I think this would work better than a green/red light. >> >> The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but >> that inside it's not talking. >> Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. >> >> That would solve most of our calls right there. >> >> On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get >> access to the device on the side of the house. >> >> The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report >> back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the >> side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy >> wifi. >> >> I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger >> billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af >> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you >> have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc >> - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Bill Prince via Af >> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC >> (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" >> indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light >> for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, >> and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local >> network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). >> >> I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer >> it any longer. >> >> bp >> <part-15@SkylineBroadbandService> >> >> On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: >>> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >>> >>> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them >>> when their network is having issues and why. >>> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a >>> lazy/easy way to do that. >>> >>> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when >>> nodes fail and why. >>> >>> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my >>> phone and I can take action. >>> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers >>> the ETA to fix etc. >>> >>> Emails from Cacti don't count. >>> >> >
