In the corporate world, computer companies have been among the most agile at taking advantage of the Net to alleviate their technical support load. The Net is the ideal location for software libraries, "knowledge bases" chock-full of trouble-shooting information and online help manuals. So if, for example, you're on the road and need a Windows 3.1 software "driver" (a small program that tells an operating system how to interact with a piece of hardware) for your new BubbleJet portable printer, the Net is the best place to turn. Maintaining online libraries of up-to-date drivers is now required operating policy for hardware manufacturers. But few companies plan to exploit the Net's vast resources as fully as California's fast-growing CyberMedia. CyberMedia has long recognized that the technical support crisis is a market niche in and of itself. "Tech support is the killer app of the Internet," says CyberMedia spokeswoman Giselle Bisson. As a manufacturer of programs -- First Aid, Oil Change and Uninstaller - - that aim to automate the service aspect of computer operation, CyberMedia understands that the future of automated technical support will have to rely on the Net. Srikanth Chari, CyberMedia's vice president in charge of marketing, imagines a future in which the Internet is dotted with CyberMedia technical support servers -- computers that can automatically download new drivers, bug fixes and diagnostic tools to computers running CyberMedia's client software. The system, like the Net itself, will be in constant flux, as cooperating hardware and software manufactures constantly upload new tools and software to the server computers. "The Internet is going to be the perfect delivery vehicle," says Chari. "We will help to make the Internet a distributed mechanism for technical support. Solutions to our problems already exist on the Internet. All we are doing is automating the process." CyberMedia's ultimate plans ambitiously hinge on taking advantage of the sum total of the Net's distributed intelligence. Right now, says Chari, some CyberMedia products incorporate a "rudimentary" feature that allows users to enter trouble-shooting queries, and the client software will go to specific Web sites and bring back information that "it thinks is relevant." But that's not the bread and butter of the CyberMedia approach. CyberMedia's future success is predicated on getting the major computer companies to cooperate, to buy into the distributed technical support plan. "The ultimate solution has to be cooperation among vendors," says Chari. "We must agree not to do stupid things. This will require changes in operating systems as well as software. Today, the paradigm is that software manufacturers assume that they have the personal computer to themselves. That has to change."
DETAIL OF ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE STREETER |
