// March 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Blogroll, Technical Know-It-All
For those who are unfamiliar with the term professional services in IT, in layman terms, it is services that vendors provide to help you install or implement upon product purchase. It could also be services that you pay to get a systems integrator or OEM vendor to come fix or perform. (Eg; performance tuning, data migration and etc.)
I have had the privilege to work in various countries in the APAC region and it is very interesting to experience how Professional Services or PS is perceived in different countries.
Let start with a little background. In order for a consultant / engineer to be truly skilled to perform an implementation or consultation, he or she needs to be trained and have achieved a certain level of experience. So how does he/she get there? They get sent to courses, thrown in the field with more experienced colleagues and learn. After which, it doesn’t end there. They will then keep refreshing themselves with new updates, which simply means on-going net new trainings. So what I am really trying to get at is this, PS consultants are highly trained technical staff and it “COSTS” a lot to get them to where they are.
So, on to my next point. It is interesting that some countries in Asia never appreciates this and almost always take PS as a given right to them. Some of the more frequent comments are …
I bought a TV that costs $2000 and I got free installation service from the vendor. Why can’t I get some free service when I buy $200,000 worth of enterprise equipment from you?
I am a big customer, if you don’t provide me free service, I can always take my business to another vendor.
In my honest opinion, it is unfair to compare a guy who installs your TV to a consultant that deals with your Enterprise IT Systems. Agreed? What is interesting though is that countries like Australia and Japan are usually more open to the discussion of Paid Professional Services. I have had the opportunity to work in Australia for a few years, so I can rightfully say this. The customers that usually pay for services in Australia are usually not those that do not have highly skilled staff at their disposal (infact, most of them have more skilled staff than most customers in Asia that requests services for free).
Some customers feel that the vendors should perform free service because of the high margins that have slapped onto the products that they sell. I am not going to deny it, but it is the same everywhere else. Take for example, when you buy a car. The cost you paid for the car is highly inflated anyway and when you try to get it fixed (aside from cases where it breaks during the warranty period), you still pay the mechanics to get it fixed right?
Some may complain that the cost of PS is not justifiable, which I sometimes do agree. So let me give you a hint. The prices are always set high because it is always a given that the customer will come back to negotiate this. “Yes, this is a given right as the customer”. So please negotiate. You can squeeze in a couple of freebies here and there, but remember, nothing is free.
