back to article HP Services engineer dispatch tool 'broken', say engineers

An automated service call system pilot at HP – which we are told cost $72m to develop – is fundamentally flawed because it often relies on patchy web connectivity, engineers are complaining. The "enhanced dispatch" is expected to replace the existing "resource control" call centre in Bulgaria towards the end of there year, but …

  1. zaax

    Won't work in the UK then were there is only 60% mobile internet coverage

    1. localzuk Silver badge

      Indeed. Down here, 3G signal is a luxury. On most of the roads around here, any signal is a luxury!

      So, something needs to change in the UK to deal with this sort of system!

  2. Little Mouse

    Is it just me...

    ...or have all HP-related articles had a bit of a negative slant to them these days?

    Personally I think they peaked with the Laserjet III. It's been downhill for them ever since then.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Is it just me...

      Laserjet III? The II was way better. Still have a few IIs in service!

      1. Little Mouse

        Re: Is it just me...

        True - the II was a lovely beast. I didn't much enjoy moving them around though...

  3. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    This is another shining example of people in offices making decisions about things they have no real connection with. Before designing something, get out there are meet the real users and see how they really work.

    I think it was the boss of Kwik-Fit who insisted that everyone spend one day a month working in one of their garages to really understand the needs of their front line staff.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      I think there's a different cause

      I bet it works fine in the lab, on a 1 gig/10 gig network with no latency.

      You know, like Google Search...

  4. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

    Engineers running late or not turning up

    So they have put a system in that basically is the same as before and every other company that I have had to raise a call for. Delays will always happen, traffic, taking longer on a job than expected (Always happens for my calls, an engineer will be onsite 5x longer as the fix didn't work and needs more work).

    HP send out BT <insert business name I can't remember> engineers at the moment so unsure how it will affect us in the UK (Certainly for Desktops and notebooks, unsure of servers etc...).

  5. adam payne

    Sounds like a classic case of the system being designed by people with little or no field experience.

    With anything like this there has to be communication with the field staff otherwise it doesn't work or it doesn't fit in with their way of doing things.

  6. cosymart

    Chickens coming home....

    Let me get this right, there is a major IT company implementing a major internal IT solution that is slurping up funds and the target end date is slipping to the right. Why does this not surprise me, they are obviously using the same consultants as they foist on everyone else! Ha! :-)

  7. robertcirca

    You can have the best workforce on this planet ...

    You can have the best workforce on this planet ...

    However, management and contractors can ruin even the best company.

    I know what I am talking about. After working for 25 years for HP I saw how a once successful and highly esteemed company turned into the playing ground of incompetent and ruthless mangers.

    robert

  8. Erik4872

    But it works in the lab!

    I feel like I've seen this before...oh wait, I'm living it right now.

    The little niche of my company that I work in is involved in doing managed IT in hard-to-reach places. I'm currently trying to explain to the new product manager that all the magic shiny tools the salespeople are showing him don't work outside of a high-speed LAN. Software vendors seem to assume that everyone has gigabit Ethernet on site and multiple redundant Metro Ethernet WAN links between locations. Getting systems management tools built for these environments working in our just-above-dialup conditions is a challenge to say the least. Forget the cloud - we're lucky to have connectivity in some locations.

    Unfortunately in my company, product managers do all the magic tool buying and we're just told to make it work. Some of this stuff must have been sold over many rounds of golf, lunches and strip club visits...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This sounds like a system deployed recently at one of HPs competitors. Originally developed to schedule engineers to repair vending machines, it was tweaked to track professional services staff working on projects that may run weeks, not minutes.

    A lot of overhead for very little gain

    Jc

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