Taking the pain out of a new PC
In a software company like a la mode where we do everything in-house and mostly at our OKC headquarters, tech support and sales really are the "front lines" where you get thousands of issues thrown at you daily. Our tech department really buzzes, and we actually have it smack dab in the middle of the building so it's kind of like a 24/7 pulse for the rest of the company. So, even though we don't see the customers face-to-face on a regular basis, we're constantly aware of what's really important.
Something else kind of cool is that most of a la mode's management and product teams actually started in some capacity where they worked with customers every day on the phone - and we can't help but take that with us in whatever role we're put in.
So, after a few years of being a la mode's EVP of Customer Service and overseeing the support and documentation teams, I'm returning to my role as a Product Manager, and my customer service mentality is still on overdrive.
In support, it was a given that if an appraiser mentioned they were getting a new PC, we knew we'd be talking to them several times over the next week while they switched everything over. It's not that things really malfunctioned. It was just a tedious process that had a lot of details to get right. (The documentation for moving WinTOTAL to a new PC is on our website at http://help.alamode.com/docs/backup.) We're more than happy to help people over the phones with this type of stuff and have the staff to do it - but the point is that the customer is supposed to be doing appraisals and is typically getting behind while messing with a new computer. Not good.
Now, could you use the Vault to move everything? Sure. But, you'd need to buy a lot of space and have a really fast Internet connection to move your gigabyes and gigabytes of data. The current Vault is unbeatable as an automatic, incremental, off site backup for WinTOTAL. But if you're doing a one-time shot to a new PC, it would make more sense to use one of the readily available and shockingly inexpensive removable USB drives - that's what I'd do.
So, one of my first tasks as a Product Manager was drawing up specs for a simple utility we could add to the Vault that would automate archiving a WinTOTAL installation with data to a removable hard drive and restoring it to a new system. The specs are in - it's a simple 4 step wizard - and the most difficult thing you have to do is plug in your removable drive and know how to browse to it. Sound like something you could use?
Since it's not all that complicated of a utility, we should have it out by autumn - just in time to help out all those folks getting new PC's at the end of the year sales.
Matt Krodel
Product Manager, Appraiser XSites
a la mode, inc/
Something else kind of cool is that most of a la mode's management and product teams actually started in some capacity where they worked with customers every day on the phone - and we can't help but take that with us in whatever role we're put in.
So, after a few years of being a la mode's EVP of Customer Service and overseeing the support and documentation teams, I'm returning to my role as a Product Manager, and my customer service mentality is still on overdrive.
In support, it was a given that if an appraiser mentioned they were getting a new PC, we knew we'd be talking to them several times over the next week while they switched everything over. It's not that things really malfunctioned. It was just a tedious process that had a lot of details to get right. (The documentation for moving WinTOTAL to a new PC is on our website at http://help.alamode.com/docs/backup.) We're more than happy to help people over the phones with this type of stuff and have the staff to do it - but the point is that the customer is supposed to be doing appraisals and is typically getting behind while messing with a new computer. Not good.
Now, could you use the Vault to move everything? Sure. But, you'd need to buy a lot of space and have a really fast Internet connection to move your gigabyes and gigabytes of data. The current Vault is unbeatable as an automatic, incremental, off site backup for WinTOTAL. But if you're doing a one-time shot to a new PC, it would make more sense to use one of the readily available and shockingly inexpensive removable USB drives - that's what I'd do.
So, one of my first tasks as a Product Manager was drawing up specs for a simple utility we could add to the Vault that would automate archiving a WinTOTAL installation with data to a removable hard drive and restoring it to a new system. The specs are in - it's a simple 4 step wizard - and the most difficult thing you have to do is plug in your removable drive and know how to browse to it. Sound like something you could use?
Since it's not all that complicated of a utility, we should have it out by autumn - just in time to help out all those folks getting new PC's at the end of the year sales.
Matt Krodel
Product Manager, Appraiser XSites
a la mode, inc/
Labels: WinTOTAL Shuttle
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