We're in the process of assessing VDI and Terminal Services as possible solutions to some of our desktop problems. We rely heavily on multiple montor configurations and the ability to grab photos from customer's cameras. Microsoft, blessedly, has seen the light and released new versions of RDP that do true multi monitor emulation and much better graphics compression. But to leverage the full capabilities of RDP 7.0 our new thin clients have to be Windows 7 Embedded.
This is a change for us. We've been relying on Wyse technology to give us what we need, but discovered pretty early on that ThinOS was full of bugs treated with ever more cumbersome service releases. Things like dual monitors, USB drive pass through and in the case of the mobile thin client, the wireless NIC didn't work out of the box. That means we don't have a lot of reason to trust other Linux based thin client operating systems and how they'd interact with Microsoft Terminal Services.
We narrowed our most recent selection process to three vendors; AnonVendor, Hewlett Packard and the EeeBox. We then got in touch with our VAR and directly to AnonVendor.
The end result was we settled on the HP version, the model without the parallel port as it ended up having a smaller footprint and the OS was cleaner out of the box. The EeeBox shipped with a ton of boxed apps from their partners and took forever to clean up. The other vendor had some problems, the most notable being USB keyboards were a no go from the start.
But this really isn't about their hardware, it's about their support and strategy. We work in Pacific Time, which I realize is a lot later than almost everyone else. What I expect and what I usually get from most of our vendors is an understanding that they might be awake at 8:00am mountain time, it is absolutely inappropriate to call a West Coast customer at 6:40-6:55am their time.
If the communication cannot wait, then it needs an e-mail. Does someone have the phone? Sure, we have an on call rota, but that's to deal with company based emergencies, not to have a chat with a vendor about something they're trying to sell us. And had this happened once I would have attributed it to thoughtlessness, instead it happened 3 times. The kicker is when I was selecting vendors, I chased them up several times to get the demo unit or even confirmation the damned thing had shipped. But once we had it they couldn't wait until I'd finished my breakfast before they jumped on the phone. Really?
The second thing, upon discovering we were not going to use their product, they were defensive and rude. I informed them we were returning the unit, I omitted the problems with the keyboard and that price was a deciding factor. To which the vendor responded "Well we did tell you the price up front." And yes, you did and if the product had been good enough and the service respectful of our time, we might have considered it. But that bridge was long ago burned.
To recap, they went from aloof, to overly enthusiastic and rude, to rude and demanding all in a month. This isn't the first time a vendor's behavior has made me less inclined to purchase from them. A previous Wyse rep's aggressive sales tactics had me praising Caller ID. I'm still cagey about picking up the phone if it says "Anonymous." I also understand I'm flaky on my end. I have my own hoops to jump through, my own task list and a list of requirements that must remain flexible for me to adapt to the business needs. That's my job.
The flip side is we have a couple vendors we love. Our general VAR rep is great, gives us what we need and understands if we decide at the last minute we don't need something because the situation change. We quote a lot and then don't get the go ahead for months. Similarly, our thermal printer vendor is always up for a chat, a laugh and tries to fix even the most petty mark on our labels. Would I even consider switching them? Probably not. Hardware breaks, Microsoft puts out buggy operating systems but personalities aren't fixable with a patch or a screwdriver. And to me, that matters a lot.
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