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Note: As of publication date, it appears that IBM no longer offers Via Voice on its website, you may purchase through distributors.
Frequent internal reorganizations, and infighting over who should own IBM's website and "best practices" (between the web design team and the marketing team) ultimately leaves the user out. The company's independent websites, such as alphaworks and developerWorks, cater to the developer community, and successfully meet user expectations. If you use ibm.com to purchase products, the experience is not as straightforward.
The internet search on ibm.com fails to be an innovative way to find information across ibm.com, and the company hopes to drive higher standards of web use by introducing personalization to replace navigation and search-engine failures sometime in 2005.
Since my role included the improvement of IBM's web experience, it was frustrating to run into interference while attempting to fix ibm.com failures without adding additional confusion. For the websites for which I was personally responsible, I was successful despite severe funding cuts and outrageous operating expenses.
In lengthy sessions with customers, I observed their performance using IBM's website and compared their experience with Sun Microsystems' and Oracle's sites. Users are not tied to any single website. We, as users, simply do not care. When we need information we need it quickly and expect information to be served up efficiently. We want to browse information anonymously. We'll tolerate "logging in" depending upon how badly we need the information behind the task.
While the results and data collected in those customer reports are not appropriate to print here, the overall experience is best described through a personal experience I logged while using ibm.com. The internal fighting between web design teams and the marketing teams shows through a poor user experience... much like an unruly child reflects problems at home.
I had a personal need to purchase IBM Via Voice (translation software), the best translation product on the market. The direct link to IBM Via Voice was not available. However, I did eventually find the product link through a press-release database.
Once set to purchase IBM Via Voice from their software pages, I selected and proceeded to "check out" and (hopefully) download. The IBM form did not accept my address for payment. I submitted three times before deciding to use IBM chat. Several screens later (some were hidden on my desktop I discovered,) IBM requested that I download a packet to continue with chat. Here is the chat conversation I recorded after the packet loaded:
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Establishing connection.... Connection established.... Initiating Call, Please Wait.... You are number 1 in the queue.... Ringing.... Call Connected. [5:48:49 PM]: Thank you for contacting IBM Me! How may I help you?
me:[5:48:56 PM]: hello, i 'm
trying to buy via voice translator and
it won't accept my address.
[5:49:46 PM]: When purchasing a product such as ViaVoice from IBM USA, IBM requires an American billing and shipping address. It will not accept a P.O. box either. me:[5:50:02 PM]: right, i'm using my address in nyc. [5:51:25 PM]: Very Sorry for the inconvenience. You may call IBM and speak with a Sales Specialist Directly to book the order. Are you attempting to download the software, or are you purchasing a boxed version?
me:[5:52:07 PM]: no, i'm
purchasing two downloads
me:[5:54:30 PM]: are you still there? [5:54:36 PM]: The downloads can only be purchased online. I will request that you contact IBMs Customer Support team at 1-877-999-7115, choosing option number 3 for web assistance, and any of the representatives will be more than happy to assist you. We will get you in contact with the Electronic Responce Center to further investigate this problem. me:[5:54:51 PM]: ok [5:55:00 PM]: Is there anything else I may assist you with today? me:[5:55:11 PM]: no, thanks though |
Our chat ended after 7 minutes, and I needed to use the telephone (the old way) to continue my purchase with IBM's website. I called the first number he gave me. It was the wrong number. They transferred me to support.
Support only handles hardware. They transferred me somewhere else; the VRU was very long I hung up and decided to call ShopIBM, or the number located on the masthead of the page I'm viewing. But ShopIBM doesn't handle this either, so they transferred me to 888.746.7426, x 3. That number transferred me to "electronics" support. The gentleman and I talked, he apparently was able to fill out the form for me, and he took my credit card number and provided a URL to download IBM Via Voice. As the notation early in this article states, it is odd (at best) that IBM's e-business strategy is to send users to other websites in order to purchase IBM software. And yet, this typifies IBM's greatest problem... rather than solve the online issues, outsource the problem to a partner and let them deal with it.
It was very easy to purchase an iPAQ on Hewlett-Packard (Compaq's) website. The purchase was straightforward, simple, and took about 10 minutes to complete -- actually, five minutes were used to look at different handheld products. But more importantly, that simple iPAQ purchase with Hewlett-Packard's website sold me on their ability to manage an e-business transaction. When I needed to replace my IBM ThinkPad with a personal computer, (upon IBM layoff notification,) Hewlett-Packard's website was my first stop. Using Hewlett-Packard's website, I designed my own purchase of an H-P Pavilion zd7000 in 20 minutes. The laptop was delivered ready to use two weeks later. Hewlett-Packard's subsequent (telephone) software support (located in India) is another experience entirely, but I am sold on the overall ability of Hewlett-Packard to conduct e-business transactions -- the way they are intended.