Bowling with Avatars….

Perhaps this article from the New York Times is on to something ?
“I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims.”

Because there seems to be a disconnect in the Computer technology business – a disconnect between their customers and the reality of business today. For example, a few months ago NetApp began using avatars ( cartoon characters) – NetApp uses Avatars – to simulate their customer interactions and get a better idea of how to work with customers. We now learn that NetApp’s sales have not been up to par, and they are going to have to cut back on some hiring. Perhaps their cartoon characters misled them? ” Sufferin’ Succotash!

More recently I experienced an epiphany when I learned that another Silicon Valley company views the effectiveness of their partners by their bowling and golf skills. I wonder if they use avatars, too?

Many of our customers have told us over the last few years that they like that when they call Zerowait a person answers the phone and that we really care about our customers. Computer technology helps us all do our jobs better, but just because something is high tech does not mean it is going to help you and your company be more efficient. If you want to provide high availability service to customers you have to understand the customer’s problems and how appropriate technology will solve their issues.

Perhaps someday cartoon characters will be going bowling together to solve our customers thorny high availability network and storage issues. But I don’t think it will be anytime soon!