Expressing My Wishes For Success
May 1st, 2008 | Filed under Business
Yesterday I came across an addition to a post on the History of Geeks On Call blog that pointed to an article regarding the formation of a new technical consulting company called Tech Herd. The company just happened to be formed by former Geeks on Call Vice President of Operations, Michael Vanderslice.
I’ve always respected Michael as a leader and someone who truly believed in making Geeks on Call the best company he could. There has always been a widely held belief that after he left Geeks in 2006 that the company began its decline to the level where it stands today.
With that said, I personally wanted to publically give my best wishes to Michael in his new endeavor, and hope he is capable of recreating the success of his early days with Geeks On Call.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Yeah I’m gonna go ahead and disagree. Mostly with the basic premise that this model for travelling home PC repair has any real future. They can’t generally afford the pay rates demanded by knowledgable IT pros. And most small businesses don’t want a company who’s focus is mostly home users.
Home computers are very rapidly becoming mature and the contractors who service them for home users have not. in fact the model essentially rewards incompetence since most companies bill based on time spent, so a more efficient, effective tech is going to earn less for his company than someone who barely knows what they are doing.
Every other home technology has either matured to the point where replacement is a better option than repair, such as TV or small appliances. Or, in the case of electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or major home appliances, those contractors are much better regulated, licensed and qualified.
In house computer repair continues to pimp the image of essentially hiring the neighborhood geek kid to handle a home users IT needs, instead of an actual knowledgable professional. If that’s what people want to do, just go hire the neighborhood geek kid! ‘Certified’ is a HUGELY bogus term.
There remains very little reason that home PC’s could not be sold to be reasonably secure if properly configured out of the box, with effective networking devices in place.
Its time for the Nerd Herd thing to be put down and for home computers to REALLY mature to a proper level and for home repair techs to be better regulated.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Now that whole thing is another topic entirely. I just wanted to wish Mike luck, because he was one of the few people at Geeks on call I respected.