I've designed and built ISPs, ASPs, and IDCs. The common problem is a lack of an integrated OSS(Operational Support System.)
I define OSS as:
Billing and Subcriber Management
Customer Relationship Managment (CRM)
Provisioining (may not apply for simple dial up)
Network Element Management.
You must examine, after the business plan, what software will fit into the above puzzle. I saw a 42 million dollar ASP go under because they could not automate the OSS. Adding new clients, setting up the billing, taking care of their problems all these were manual steps and cost them business. People cost more than software.
These components must be addressed in your business plan, even if you only plan to use quick books and a telephone.
Another area: Business Process. How do you sign up new customers, how do you handle complaints...how do you....I think you get my idea. Do the BP then design the OSS.
True True...but when box that linux runs on has a 50% or better margin its hard to loose... don't forget to add forget IBM Professional Services....man you pay....linux is a small part of the IBM solution....tiny actually....
I know a bunch of people that worked for an ASP (Application Service Provider) in NOVA that went under. The ASP specialized in banking data...What happened???? The customers started to become investors!!! Its better than no data..... I can see it on NetSlaves...Open Source Business Plan Number 4342...Get Customers to commit their mission critical data...threaten to go out of business and to take all their data with them...or..Pay up...
The National Archives only accepts data in ASCII format. They view text as the lowest common denominator...they won't take tiff for images....You can understand their posistion after you sit down and think..this is our American history...
I did document management for the government....not fun..but man do they have a lot of paper...20 million images and they were just getting started where I was...
True I agree that in 1900 pages there will be errors..but you need a clearly defined scope of work.
Think about what design goes into an IDC: Network infrastructure, Network Management, Facilities, Customer Relationship software, Security, Billing, Provisioning, Project Management, Training, System's Integration....add in the basics such as back ups and fail overs with high availability...then throw in multiple IDCs to make it fun...Remember if an IDC is built wrong you've wasted about $50 million bucks.
Also a design document serves to cover your ass when the customer changes their mind 5 months later. We also document what a customer doesn't want as well
You're critical, but don't offer any solutions on how to accomplish the goal...
There needs to be a way to find that out before the requirements get so large
"Pretty soon you're talking about 200 pages of specs. .."
Yes... You should be talking at least 200 pages of text.... I just did an IDC design that was 1900 pages of Requirements and Analysis....This is how real systems work.......We have not installed one piece of software or hardware yet...
It upsets me that Dell wont budge...I am a Dell shareholder...but I bought a Compaq back in Jan......Saddens me how the best manufacturing will not use AMD....
Remember, Orrin Hatch is the musician's friend. I know this sounds crazy, but he is one of the few senators to stand up to this industry.
Courtney Love even respects his views on the industry. When Sonny Bono died, musicians lost a friend in Congress.
check out
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/ index.html
Love's Words"Orrin Hatch, songwriter and Republican senator from Utah, seems to be the only person in Washington with a progressive view of copyright law"
If we each sent a few dollars to a particular charity, the cost of processing the individual checks would easily exceed 15%. Think about all the people needed to do the simple stuff like opening envelopes, writing all the check numbers down, writing the deposit slips, making sure there are no errors, bringing them to the bank, reprocessing the bounced checks..I think you get my idea. The non-profit would easily send spend 15%.
One example, the company I worked for donated 100k in matching funds to the earthquake victims in India through UNICEF's web site. Fortunately, UNICEF is large enough to process their own transactions to cut out the middlemen, but it would still be worth it. Imagine the amount of individual donations and time to process 100k worth of donations. The Indian earthquake victims need the food now, not later.100k was collected in less than 48 hours from my company's employees. Electronic is the way to go.
I dont like PPPoe and I'll be the first to switch to static IP.....
But Verizon...much to my dismay has been a good ISP.
Getting it installed during the strike was a nightmare...but once is was running it has worked like a charm..
I get 540 kbps on a 640 line...pretty damn good...
Tech support....I had unbelievable. I had Network engineers and tier three techs calling me to get me up and running...
I know the horror stories...but I've only had a good experience with verizon...nevertheless PPPoe sucks....
Stephen.Power@NO_SPAMMY.verizon
My Friend let me tell you about DSL. DSL is a nightmare. It takes a long time to set up.... Mostly incompetent people... I had a nightmare with flashcom.com., Bell Atlantic, and Covad. Search/. for flashcom.com. You'll find a discussion of cable v dsl v T1..... Unfortunately, most people are having the same problem.... www.flashcomsux.com.... The problems are every where: http://cnnfn.com/2000/06/12/soho/q_alice_col/ AnyLoveIsGoodLove
Slashdot Mirror
Billing and Subcriber Management
Customer Relationship Managment (CRM)
Provisioining (may not apply for simple dial up)
Network Element Management.
You must examine, after the business plan, what software will fit into the above puzzle. I saw a 42 million dollar ASP go under because they could not automate the OSS. Adding new clients, setting up the billing, taking care of their problems all these were manual steps and cost them business. People cost more than software. These components must be addressed in your business plan, even if you only plan to use quick books and a telephone.
Another area: Business Process. How do you sign up new customers, how do you handle complaints...how do you....I think you get my idea. Do the BP then design the OSS.
Good Luck steve
True True...but when box that linux runs on has a 50% or better margin its hard to loose... don't forget to add forget IBM Professional Services....man you pay....linux is a small part of the IBM solution....tiny actually....
I know a bunch of people that worked for an ASP (Application Service Provider) in NOVA that went under. The ASP specialized in banking data...What happened???? The customers started to become investors!!! Its better than no data..... I can see it on NetSlaves...Open Source Business Plan Number 4342...Get Customers to commit their mission critical data...threaten to go out of business and to take all their data with them...or..Pay up...
The National Archives only accepts data in ASCII format. They view text as the lowest common denominator...they won't take tiff for images....You can understand their posistion after you sit down and think..this is our American history... I did document management for the government....not fun..but man do they have a lot of paper...20 million images and they were just getting started where I was...
True I agree that in 1900 pages there will be errors..but you need a clearly defined scope of work.
Think about what design goes into an IDC: Network infrastructure, Network Management, Facilities, Customer Relationship software, Security, Billing, Provisioning, Project Management, Training, System's Integration....add in the basics such as back ups and fail overs with high availability...then throw in multiple IDCs to make it fun...Remember if an IDC is built wrong you've wasted about $50 million bucks.
Also a design document serves to cover your ass when the customer changes their mind 5 months later. We also document what a customer doesn't want as well
You're critical, but don't offer any solutions on how to accomplish the goal...
There needs to be a way to find that out before the requirements get so large
"Pretty soon you're talking about 200 pages of specs. . ."
Yes... You should be talking at least 200 pages of text.... I just did an IDC design that was 1900 pages of Requirements and Analysis....This is how real systems work.......We have not installed one piece of software or hardware yet...
It upsets me that Dell wont budge...I am a Dell shareholder...but I bought a Compaq back in Jan......Saddens me how the best manufacturing will not use AMD....
Remember, Orrin Hatch is the musician's friend. I know this sounds crazy, but he is one of the few senators to stand up to this industry. Courtney Love even respects his views on the industry. When Sonny Bono died, musicians lost a friend in Congress. check out http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/ index.html
Love's Words"Orrin Hatch, songwriter and Republican senator from Utah, seems to be the only person in Washington with a progressive view of copyright law"
If we each sent a few dollars to a particular charity, the cost of processing the individual checks would easily exceed 15%. Think about all the people needed to do the simple stuff like opening envelopes, writing all the check numbers down, writing the deposit slips, making sure there are no errors, bringing them to the bank, reprocessing the bounced checks..I think you get my idea. The non-profit would easily send spend 15%. One example, the company I worked for donated 100k in matching funds to the earthquake victims in India through UNICEF's web site. Fortunately, UNICEF is large enough to process their own transactions to cut out the middlemen, but it would still be worth it. Imagine the amount of individual donations and time to process 100k worth of donations. The Indian earthquake victims need the food now, not later.100k was collected in less than 48 hours from my company's employees. Electronic is the way to go.
I dont like PPPoe and I'll be the first to switch to static IP..... But Verizon...much to my dismay has been a good ISP. Getting it installed during the strike was a nightmare...but once is was running it has worked like a charm.. I get 540 kbps on a 640 line...pretty damn good... Tech support....I had unbelievable. I had Network engineers and tier three techs calling me to get me up and running... I know the horror stories...but I've only had a good experience with verizon...nevertheless PPPoe sucks.... Stephen.Power@NO_SPAMMY.verizon
This is why I love /.
Steve
K stands for kriponite (you the stuff that would make superman weak....intel weak)
Thats legend at least...My Friend let me tell you about DSL. DSL is a nightmare. It takes a long time to set up.... Mostly incompetent people... I had a nightmare with flashcom.com., Bell Atlantic, and Covad. Search /. for flashcom.com. You'll find a discussion of cable v dsl v T1..... Unfortunately, most people are having the same problem.... www.flashcomsux.com.... The problems are every where: http://cnnfn.com/2000/06/12/soho/q_alice_col/ AnyLoveIsGoodLove