Your right, and in re-reading my original reply I do come
across as being one-sided (not the intent).  Let me try again :)

For "most" companies, IS (whatever it is called) is there to
provide a service to the other departments within the organization.
As such, they sometimes have little control over what they are
supposed to support.  That doesn't mean that they cannot and
should not attempt to influence those other departments from
following a course of action which reduces the amount of support
needed from IS.  No matter how well intentioned a "company
standard" is, there are going to be corner cases where something
else works better.  In those cases, even if it doesn't meet standards,
you're going to have to try and do your best to work with it.  To
tell your user that you can't help them because they don't have the
right software may ease your burden at that moment, but it will
inevitably come back to haunt you and the department later.
  Joe mentioned the use of additional fee's being applied when supporting
non-standard items, and if the company works that way, it certainly does
keep most non-essential requests to a minimum while providing some
mechanism for getting assistance when needed.  I've worked for
companies at opposite ends of this support issue, and generally, the
bigger the company, the more restrictive it's policies.  But in all cases,
when something is broke that is going to have a large impact in their
ability to do business, whether that item is technically supported or
not has no bearing on whether someone is going to actually help them.
After the "crisis" then comes the obligatory meeting to discuss replacing
it with something that is supported, or bringing that item into the supported
category.
  That 'ivory tower' can be a pretty cold and lonely place if you don't show
flexibility in your policies IMHO.

Regards,
Michael L Gueterman
Easy Does It Technologies
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.editcorp.com
voice: (888) 858-EDIT -or- (509) 943-5108
fax:   (509) 946-1170
--

----------
From:  Stuart Pierce[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:  Tuesday, December 16, 1997 9:52 AM
To:  [log in to unmask]
Subject:  Re: [HP3000-L] IS Support (was: Spooling to Laserjet 5P/6P)

/soapbox

I agree that we are a services unit and we work for them, but who works for
us? You have to be customer service orientated, but often more times than
not, IS is taken for granted. We do not write WordPerfect and other canned
software packages, and therefore cannot be held responsible for their
shortcomings. Telling them to take a hike is a bit extreme, but letting
them know that a class would help them out and that you can only do what
the program allows is in line. If users expectations of our skills and
abilities of working with the multitude of software and hardware and all of
their differences were reality, a General Protection Fault would be a
fantasy.

/end soapbox
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<snip>