Hi,

I just noticed a message in another thread by bobcares, a representative of bobcares.com - a outsourced support firm based in India. With a little US based marketing assistance I think they could be a player.

What I'd like to know is if any of you have any experience with bobcares.com, or similar outsourced support firms (who?)... good or bad, how have they fared? Share your stories.

Thanks,

Brandon

Hello.

Here's a thread about bobcares,

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29400&highlight=bobcares

I've talked with the bobcares representative that comes here a lot on AIM. He is very friendly and knowledgeable. When I start my hosting company soon, I plan on outsourcing to bobcares. And they've recently offered plans that cost as little as $24 a month. ( Designed for resellers. )

Lowest I see is $75 a month...

http://www.bobcares.com/pages/reseller_plan.php

Cost is

0-12 Hosting accounts. -> $24
13 - 50 Hosting accounts -> $2 per Hosting account
50-500 -> $1 per Hosting Account

Ah, that other thread was very enlightening, thanks.

I'm seriously considering them so I can offer 24/7 coverage (currently support isn't offered 11pm - 7am, but the clients I have don't seem to mind).

Any of you actually using bobcares? Experiences? Has language been a factor?

Thanks

Brandon

hmm i was looking at

http://www.bobcares.com/pages/startup_plan.php

Ok, "bobcares" has got to be kidding me...

Offload your support issues

Great philosophy (I think it should qualify for a Nobel prize :rolleyes: ).

"bobcares" new tagline: Taking care of your lazy business. (tm)

Transparent support

:erm: :uhh: :eek2:

:eek3:

No need for Infrastructure

What the hell is that supposed to mean? :eek: Without an infrastructure you're as good as dead (you'll already be a sitting duck when you outsource anything)

You remain in control

So we remain in complete control of everything, including the response to the customer? How could we possibly remain in control if you're given access to the customers and the delegated authority of maintain support for them? :confused:

Immediate replies

From: http://www.bobcares.com/pages/guarantee.php

This gives us the confidence to offer a 1 hour Quick Response and a 6 Hour! Quick Resolution Guarantee.

'nuff said :D

Clearly there's just too many uncertainties involved -- Be safe, do it yourself and save any undue encumbrance or harm :)

(Not to mention about 5000 grammatical errors on "bobcares.com" :rolleyes: )

I don't think you should be hammering their service so much.
If you do not like the concept, don't use it.



Great philosophy (I think it should qualify for a Nobel prize ).

"bobcares" new tagline: Taking care of your lazy business. (tm)


That's not exactly the case. For new hosting businesses, it may be a one-man operation. Hiring support staff is not cheap, so outsourcing support looks like a better option. Eventually when their company grows, they will be able to afford their own support staff. On the other hand, if the solution is working for them, why change? The sales emails are still handled by someone at the hosting company (I assume?) So you are not totally out of touch with your business either.


From: http://www.bobcares.com/pages/guarantee.php

This gives us the confidence to offer a 1 hour Quick Response and a 6 Hour! Quick Resolution Guarantee.


I think that those times are quite impressive, you don't?

The companies I work at do not use a service like this because we have our own support staff, but I do not believe it is such a stupid solution as you make it out to be.

Hi!
Wow, you seem to have some anger against us... I wonder why...:(

Let me make you understand the way we work. I guess that way I may be able to make things better.

Here's how -
We first install a ticketing system for you on your server. (if you already have one then we use that). We usually install ticketsmith. This is really the best..
Now suppose your site is called
hosting.com. All mails coming to support@hosting.com is filtered to the ticketing system.
And we only reply via the ticketing system. This way you can always see the quality of the answers we write and the time in which we respond and resolve. Now i guess you agree on the control aspect.

Now comes the extras. We usually assign 6 people per client i.e. 2 per shift of 8 hours.
One project manager is appointed for you. We give you access to a private forum where you can talk to our people. Our aim is to always blend to your working methods. Hence, we always appreciate any comments/suggestions from you. We also have an escalation system so that if our tech. does not respond in time the problem is escalated and looked after by higher authorities.

For the per server plan we also have server monitoring where we monitor your server from 2 locations using netsaint. We monitor ping, http, ftp, pop, smtp and dns...

Our aim is not to act as an outsourced group. Our aim is for you to think of us and your staff in another room. You control everything.
And if you feel our service is not good enough just let us know and we'd refund your money. The guarantee is given because we are sure of the quality of our work. Our team consists of only computer and electronics engineers who know the subject very well.

As far as the infrastructure goes we have leased lines, backup lines for 24 connectivity. Also we have generator backup for power. This way we are always up.

My question is simple as a hosting company you do not necessarily have your own NOC. You generally lease it out... Why? To cut costs and have higher standards. We feel that support is just as important and hence bobcares... :)

Out of curiosity I too would like to ask a question. How do you manage to give 24/7 support. Even if you have 3 people you would be spending something like 3x5000 a month. If you have 500 clients at 500X20 you are making a loss of ....... Do I need to say more on that part...

Please note that you have the right to share your views with us and we always appriciate comments/feedback. The two new plans on our site has come after we had discussions with a lot of people on WHT. Our aim is to constantly improve and be the best.


Have a great day :)

regards
amar





Originally posted by mindboggle
Ok, "bobcares" has got to be kidding me...



Great philosophy (I think it should qualify for a Nobel prize :rolleyes: ).

"bobcares" new tagline: Taking care of your lazy business. (tm)







What the hell is that supposed to mean? :eek: Without an infrastructure you're as good as dead (you'll already be a sitting duck when you outsource anything)



So we remain in complete control of everything, including the response to the customer? How could we possibly remain in control if you're given access to the customers and the delegated authority of maintain support for them? :confused:





'nuff said

Clearly there's just too many uncertainties involved -- Be safe, do it yourself and save any undue encumbrance or harm :)

(Not to mention about 5000 grammatical errors on "bobcares.com" :rolleyes: )

Originally posted by mindboggle Ok, "bobcares" has got to be kidding me...



Great philosophy (I think it should qualify for a Nobel prize :rolleyes: ).



Well,

I have seen people who think web host that don't have its own datacenter is a joke.
I have seen people who think web host that don't manage its own servers is a joke.
I have seen people who think web host that don't have its own merchant account is a joke.
I have seen people who think web host that don't develop their own cp is a joke.
I have seen people who think web host that resell is a joke.

Now, what am I seeing right now? :)

The most important thing is the end result...how to provide quality support and maintain profitability. There are many approaches to getting there and none of those is necessarily right or wrong. However, I do continue to have a problem with those who say you aren't real or legitimate or whatever if you resell or if you outsource. Because the fact is we are all resellers and we are all outsourcing some aspect of our business. Whether it is just the phone lines or internet backbone or includes many other items it doesn't change the fact, just the degree.

Now, if you are going to build your own worldwide phone network, build a new internet backbone, build your own computers including all components, develop your own operating systems and software, build your own building, and much more then and only then can you say you don't resell or you don't outsource.

The debate will continue about what to resell, what to outsource...and the answers will not be the same for all of us. I am just glad to see their are more options developing every day.

Bobcares, your offer is not bad and your philosophy is good - if you live up to it. Interesting.
Just one question: on your site is a link to poornam which is somehow related to ecomiscool.com. How are these related? Do you compete with hosts? And what is your main business on which you concentrate?
No offense intended, just curious.

Well for anyone that thinks companies who outsource support are a joke, you are probably already using an ISP or other service/product that outsources their support. I have first hand knowledge that MSN, Eathlink, SWBell, Dell, HP, and WebTV all outsource 90-100% of their support. And those are just the ones I have experience with. There are many, many others.

And Bob, if your using TicketSmith, you should look into switching to PerlDesk. Much better and free :)

Hi Walter,
This is a question many ask us.
Well we do a lot of works which even includes selling cakes ..... ;)
( http://www.pettikada.com )
Poornam Info Vision Pvt. Ltd. is our company. We started working in 1998 and formally started poornam in 1999.
Our primary focus then was ERP's . We have worked on ERP's for pharma companies. Basically we did a lot of work on Linux and elf.... then.
We still work on ERP's and commercial aspects of automation to a large extent for various companies.
At the same time we got in to the Webmarket too... Here we did a lot of development projects... from shopping carts to forums, to story sites to auction sites..... hosting control panel..... the list is big there.... :)

Many of our clients asked us to host their sites and we used to do through other hosting companies for them. We used to first buy from other companies and later the clients would get wild at us if the service was bad this included some big names in the hosting industry... So we decided to collect all our clients and host at one place...

So our hosting company - ecomiscool.com was born. We never actually focused on hosting. We started as resellers with nomonthly.com (which is actually owned by alabanza) and later when we crossed 100 accounts we took a dedicated server. Even now we do not no concentrate as such in ecomiscool.com. We have a very few outside clients...The dedicated server is basically used becaused because our traffic is high and we do server monitoring so we maintain it... :)
Now some time in October1999 a client (Jim, I can't reveal his site) approached us for system administration services. We did some works for him and then he asked us if we could offer tech support to him for a few days as he was planning a sking trip. We did not even know the concept then.... :)
But his idea was good and I agreed. However we were not 24/7 then. But we used to work for 16-18 hours that time....
Within another 3 months we got 4 more clients without even a site and we knew that it was not a bad idea.... So bobcares was officially born sometime before the Hostingexpo in Washington last year.
It took us over year to learn the details of this industry which is very different from the others in many aspects... Now however we know the market quite well and have clients ranging from one server companies to over 35 server companies....

Our primary focus now is
a) A development team
b) A tech team
c) A guy who looks after our cake sales....

So here we are now.... 3 years past and going steady. We are not a huge group but a very stable group as we are able to maintain our clients and staff for long times....And to top it all we are we happy with what we are doing ... :)

Have a great day :)

regards
amar

P.S. Mods.... I hope I'm not marketing here... If you feel so please let me know.. I'll remove this long post... I just started writing it got tooo long ( I went back to memory lane... :) ) and then I edited it to this state....


Originally posted by Walter
Bobcares, your offer is not bad and your philosophy is good - if you live up to it. Interesting.
Just one question: on your site is a link to poornam which is somehow related to ecomiscool.com. How are these related? Do you compete with hosts? And what is your main business on which you concentrate?
No offense intended, just curious.

Although I am not at this time using bobcares.com, I just want to say that Amar has always impressed me, both in this forum and through other correspondence, with his professionalism and maturity. I would even buy a cake from him....but don't believe it would be very good by the time it reached me here.

It is obviously a matter of choice whether to use such firms and a healthy debate on the subject is good. However, I do not think the attacks by the earlier poster are necessary or appropriate.

As to the fact that they also host, their contracts do protect you against any switching or anything like that. And, personally, I am glad they acquired some experience in hosting and dealing with the problems of a host prior to offering tech support services.

Also, it should be noted that this idea is spreading rapidly and I expect it to continue to do so. I think there will continue to be a great division of opinion as to this approach and that is fine.

As to others in this business, that I am aware of, Hyper-techs tried, withdrew, and now, may or may not be back in, but the prices on their web site have been updated and raised significantly. Gitechs has recently started marketing their services and also have U. S. level pricing. And, Cylynx has been around a while, and serves from the Phillipines. However, their pricing starts at approximately $2200 per month. I have managed large IT departments myself and worked with many developers and IT professionals. I have always found the educating of IT professionals in India to be unmatched.

So, let the debate continue, but let the personal attacks cease.

Oh...and Amar, if you want some help in cleaning up any grammatical errors, just pm or email me and I will be glad to assist.