Hi guys,
This is a proposal for an "informal" Debian support-for-hire
co-op organization.
The organization would be geared to service "incident" calls, received
via phone, email, fax, etc. But once the initial referrals are made,
there is no reason each consultant can't establish more of a
'clientele' style relationship with the individual clients.
For starters, I think we can dispense with having centralized billing
and much of the other stuff that a "formal" company would have. That
can be added later if the thing is actually successful.
Initially, I think we just need a unified marketing message, a single
web page, and a structure for referring incoming calls to the
individual consultants.
We could have this up and operating tomorrow if there was enough
support. It's that simple (I think).
Here's a little plan:
* Build a list of Debian consultants willing to participate.
* Define the set of services we are going to provide - and tag a value
on each of those. For starters, don't worry about markup for the
central organization/dispatch. We could share the effort of making the
web pages, and we could take turns answering the phones.
- I'd suggest designating several classes of support:
ie. (this is just an example 'rate schedule' - don't take it
seriously)
'Basic 1' - installation support, hand-holding, this should
be low cost, and the high-end consultants
could steer clear of it - say $30US / hr
(perhaps this could be bundled with CDs)
'Basic 2' - assistance with configuring specific packages
$40US / hr
'Samba 1' - assistance with configuring Samba - $50 hr
(only consultants with experience would do this
work)
'DNS 1' - setting up DNS servers - $50/hr
...
'Kernel 3' - figuring out random Kernel crashes - possibly
doing kernel hacking - $200/hr
- Note that this is a lot different that Bruce was suggesting.
Instead of guaranteeing problem resolution (which is risky,
and his rates were too low, and not time based) - we'll just
bill by the hour to start.
- It's fairly important, I feel, to have the same set of rates
for the same class of work (but everybody doesn't have to do
all classes of work). The billing will be itemized based on
the class of work.
* Pick somebody to be the boss. Since we won't be incorporated, and
no money will be changing hands initially, the role of the boss is
just to coordinate things, and to have the final say on who is allowed
to be part of the network. We need to be able to kick people out who
aren't up to snuff, unfortunately.
* Set up a schedule - each consultant would have to inform everybody
when they are available to work - a week ahead of time. They will
be required to set the time aside - ie. they must be able to handle
calls referred to them, or they will be kicked out.
When working, we should have an IRC channel and private mailing list
so we can communicate back-and-forth.
* Choose people to answer the phones. I'm willing to answer phones
at my phone number from 10-4 Pacific Time. We should have multiple
numbers that a potential customer can call (with the schedule on the
website). There isn't an overwhelming need to set up a central phone
number - and that wouldn't work well internationally anyways.
With more people answering phones, we could have quite a range of
overlapping time coverage. I've got voice mail on my phone too, so if
I'm away from the phone (or on it) - people can be referred to another
number.
We should attempt to be fair in referring the calls, which I don't
anticipate will be a big problem to start.
I've got a fax line too (mgetty -> email with .g3 attachments). So
I could forward faxes to everybody.
* Make a web page, do some announcements, and get some links to the
web page.
* Money
- client calls will come in, and they will be referred to the
individual consultants. Each individual consultant will be
responsible for establishing a contractual relationship with the
client and doing their own billing. (relying on the standard
rates)
- once one consultant has established a contractual relationship
with the client - that consultant can farm out work (sub-contract)
to the other consultants in the co-op network - at his/her
discretion. In order to provide unified billing, we'll do "adhoc"
peer contractual relationships.
- we can share forms, programs, contract forms etc. amongst ourselves
so that we remain relatively consistent, and can share some of the
work involved.
That's about all I can think of for now. I must admit that this is
totally biased towards the way I would like to work - I'm more keen to
experiment with the concept (temporarily) rather than get involved in
some big fancy corporate setup.
Flame away... :-)
Cheers,
- Jim
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