February 12, 2008
The beta period of my online consulting service has terminated, and it is being launched with a new name: Delphi Mentor.
You might remember I announced a while ago a consulting and support service based on reserved newsgroups. A few people (both customers and experts) were involved in a limited beta service, but we are now ready to roll out the service. The most relevant change is the new name of the service, the Delphi Mentor.
There is also a new web site for the service (with an alias) at:
The site has also been completed with the full offer, including an introductory price of 200 Euro for the first 3 months. We'll soon open up also a pay-per-single-incident option, which is less favorable in economic terms, but a good way to get started.
Notice that the site has also a page with the Delphi Mentor Team (a really outstanding group of Delphi experts), although some of the "bio" information is still missing.
posted by
marcocantu @ 1:22PM | 1 Comments
[0 Pending]
Delphi Mentor was Support
Dear Marco,
I currently work on 4 different product groups that I
have been on for years. I could have definitely used
this kind of service along the way and still can.
Borland used to do it long ago (circa 1995-6). In the
beginning pretty cheaply (maybe FREE if I remember at
the start, and then something like $50 per incident
later). I used them all the time. I can remember
saying "my credit card number is...", and then they
got ballsy and jumped to around $195 per incident.
That was the end of that marriage. If I have a
problem that might take me 4 hours to solve, for $195
I will put time in myself. For less, I would swamp
you with business. I prefer the incident charge,
since monthly I would not use since I feel
certain "programmers" would abuse the process. Next
thing you know, you would have to raise the price
like Borland did. P.S. I did not abuse it; they made
more money off me with questions, than they ever did
selling me software (I was young and new with Delphi,
you know).
Example:
There's a local restaurant around me where the owner
asked me why I didn't eat at her restaurant more
often. I told her, she had the best food in town
(seriously), but lunch with tip was $20. All she had
to do was to create an $8 lunch, it does not have to
be as elaborate as the $20 lunch (make it a half
lunch), and I would eat there every day. Some of the
places I go to, looking for "Delphi help", is like
eating at McDonalds. Frankly, I would prefer to eat a
nice answer from time to time.
Hope your service takes off, I would really like to
see it around. Please don't respond with "how about
we'll sell you half answers for half price.” I'm just
trying to make a point with the lunch analogy.
Comment by Brett Graffin
[http://www.launchpadoffice.com]
on February 12, 19:16
There are currently 0 pending (unapproved) messages.
