[OPLINTECH] Questions about Ameritech

[Chad Neeper]

Welcome to the list, Patty.

I've not heard anything one way or another about Amerikit, however, I 
have a few relevant comments based on a quick perusal of their website. 
It looks like they are using good products to install and secure the 
computers. It looks like they are using Dell computers, which are 
usually pretty good computers, in my experience. They are also using 
Faronics products to protect public computers from changes. That's also 
a plus. It appears that they use workstation imaging. It's also probably 
somewhat safe to assume that, based on the apparent national scale of 
their company, they will have a fairly well-secured standardized core 
configuration for the public computers. (Meaning that it's probably not 
just a poorly-configured one-off basic installation with no 
customizations to correctly secure the computers...A configuration we 
see all to commonly with general tech companies that don't work 
regularly with libraries and schools.) In general, I'd be cautiously 
positive on the potential technical side. Definitely do what you're 
doing, though and try to find an actual customer to talk to before you 
commit.

On the downside:  The company is based in South Dakota. Even though they 
claim a network of over 4000 technicians available to them, you will 
probably never see an actual employee of the company, even for the 
initial install. They will be using a local company (probably several) 
that is (are) responding to specific service requests. In my own 
experience, years ago I used to work for a small 4-5 employee computer 
retail/repair store. We would, on occasion, receive a faxed service 
request from a large national service company. If it was a service 
request we felt we could handle, then we would respond to the fax saying 
essentially, "We'll do it." Our service guy (me, in some cases) would 
then visit the client and perform the required on-site task. We handled 
maybe 1-3 of these types of requests each month and we never visited the 
same client twice, so there was absolutely no continuity in service. It 
was also always the case that we never understood the whole picture and 
only had our little piece of the puzzle to work with. I hated those, but 
it was good paid service work.

To counter the "downside", it's quite possible that Ameritech make 
extensive use of remote control, which will help to limit the on-site 
requirements...Something else to ask of any Ameritech customers you get 
in touch with.

All-in-all, if you're ok with the likely case of no continuity in your 
on-site server techs (perhaps if you have your own tech-saavy person to 
handle stuff after the initial install), then from the looks of it, this 
company might have some good potential. I hope you can find some paying 
customers to talk with!

Chad

-----------------------
Chad Neeper
Senior Systems Engineer

740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)




Patty Brust wrote:
> I'm new to using this list so please execuse my mistakes. Our library has
> been approached by Amerikit to provide the computers we will be buying with
> Gates grant money.  Has anyone had any experience with this company, I'm
> concerned about the support issue?  Any info will be appreciated.
>
> Patty Brust
> Jackson City Library
> Jackson, Ohio
> brustpa at oplin.org
>
>
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