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Jun 13 2007   8:00AM GMT

Uh-oh, iTera-Vision merger causing support problems?



Posted by: Mark Fontecchio
High availability, iSeries software

Remember back in November when System i high-availability software vendors iTera and Vision Solutions merged? They painted the picture of a smooth transition, rosy outlooks and, of course, uninterrupted support. Well, here’s the first sign that mergers don’t always do what they’re supposed to for the customer.

David Vasta from the iSeries Addict writes about his poor experience, particularly with support personnel from Vision. One person complaining about support isn’t news in itself, but if you read the comments to Vasta’s post, you’ll see that support from Vision has been a problem for users for a long time, and now it’s starting to bleed over to iTera users as well.

The post is obviously garnering some attention, as a senior VP from Vision Solutions even left a comment defending his company. There’s some back-and-forth going on that you don’t want to miss. As an aside, the title of the blog post is “Vision Support is starting to stink,” but the URL shows a stronger opinion: http://davidandkelly.com/iSeriesAddict/2007/06/06/vision-support-is-starting-to-suck/.

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David Vasta  |   Jun 13, 2007  2:45 PM (GMT)

Thanks for the link. All Pete had when he showed up was the same old same old. At no point has he returned my call from a week ago nor has he picked up the phone to contact me. I will explain to him the very same things I have posted. You can have all the certs you want and all the awards but in the end I continue to get average service from their over rated help desk. I would also like to add the iTera Crew, as I now call them, are great people and don’t deserve Vision’s bad name.


 

Stephane Kohn  |   Jun 21, 2007  6:23 AM (GMT)

I have been working for Lakeview Technology as a Technical Support Representative at their Belgium office and am now working under Vision Solutions. I can not tell you much about the “iTera-Vision merger causing support problems?”. But I could tell you a lot about the “Lakeview-Vision Solutions merger”. What I can tell you is that Vision Solutions is not going to cut in the Lakeview support. Nor will we cut in the support for our other products. In fact we will mutually learn from eachother and expand our support. Have a look at the link to davidkelly’s website you mention as reference. You will notice they have removed their initial post and actually wrote a very positive note about our merger: http://davidandkelly.com/iSeriesAddict/2007/06/18/vision-itera-lakeview/. If you, like davidandkelly or Mark Fontecchio, have concerns or questions, I encourage you to contact us. Talking does make a difference!


 

Tim  |   Aug 7, 2007  9:17 AM (GMT)

iTera/Vision Solutions tech support continues to “smell”. I had a bad experience with the iTera install team until I finally got someone knowledgeable. That person’s position was eliminated recently.

I’ve submitted several support requests online. The first was low priority, so I used a low severity. What I didn’t realize was that lowest severity really means “never”. After 4-7 days I finally got it escalated and received help.

Today I submitted another request online using the highest severity available (SEV 2). The auto-reply email said “*1 hour” response. The “*” means “If submitted electronically via email or web, one business day for SEV 2, two business days for SEV 3, and three business days for SEV 4.”

Wouldn’t you think you’d get better response by opening the ticket yourself? I added print screens and all kinds of other debugging info to make it easier for them to identify and resolve the problem.


 

Kenneth Neumann  |   Aug 8, 2007  12:41 AM (GMT)

Tim. Did anyone help you?? If not, could you please call support management and get this escalated. I will be glad to help you right away, including tonight if you happen to read this. Thanks. My extension is 157 or email me.