Automate best practices for support
- TAGS:Hannibal Lector, NextNine, virtual support engineer
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Data Center, Emerging Technology, Enterprise Apps, Management, Networking
When your IT vendor's product goes kablooey in your data center, you contact the company's support team and with a calm, firm Hannibal Lector-like voice, you threaten to cook them with fava beans if they don't fix your problem immediately. Sometimes that works. But, says Gil Levonai, vice president of marketing and strategy for NextNine Ltd. of Tel Aviv, wouldn't it be better if the vendor had tools in place to automatically fix problems before you go cannibalistic? That's what he claims NextNine's virtual support engineer (VSE) can do. He says VSE software, which is part of the company's NextNine Service Automation 4 software, runs on your site and has codified in Perl or VB scripts the vendor's proven best practices for identifying and fixing problems quickly. "The VSE does what a support engineer would do in a help situation," Levonai says. By the end of 2008 NextNine will add multi-entity support capabilities so vendor channel partners can provide scripts as well as the vendor itself. NextNine sells its wares directly to vendors as an OEM, so you'll need to pressure your IT supplier to add VSEs to their tools. Give them your best Hannibal Lector imitation when you ask.
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