Mike Nesmith, after nearly ruining his career by being one of the original members of the Monkees, went on to become a visionary in the field of music videos and video entertainment. His 1981 self-produced video “Elephant Parts” set standards that are still being emulated today. Elephant Parts is a collection of comedy skits and music videos based on songs from Mike’s solo career. (Yes, he had a successful solo career.) One of the skits is a satirical commercial for a company called the Large Detroit Car Company, or LDCC. In the skit, Don Hiddioso, Director of Faulty Engineering and Incredibly Dumb Design, says “In the past, some people have accused the Large Detroit Car Company of figuring the American consumer as just dumb. We did. We were wrong, and we’ve revised that thinking. We’re now hoping the American consumer is a total idiot. Why is that exciting? Because, we don’t have to pretend any more; we can come right out and tell you – these cars ARE terrible!”
I was reminded of that skit the other day when meeting with a prospective customer who is currently using storage arrays from one of the Big Five. (Think hard, you’ll figure out which five I’m talking about.) While listening to his story of the woes of using a marginal product with poorly integrated, slapped-on features, all backed by ineffectual, expensive customer support, it occurred to me that his vendor suffers from the I.T. industry equivalent of “LDCC syndrome.”
There are three key priorities for any business – customers, employees and shareholders. The order of these priorities defines the personality of the business, and the most important factor is which one comes first. What is the first priority of a company with “LDCC syndrome”? Shareholders. How is this evident? Shareholders (at least American ones) primarily care about one thing: short-term return on investment. This results in an obsessive focus on controlling cost and maximizing short term profits, a practice I refer to as Spreadsheet Management. Products are rarely better than they absolutely must be in order to reach certain specifically targeted market segments, but nonetheless are touted as groundbreaking, game-changing innovations. New features are added in the cheapest possible fashion, usually through acquisition and minimal integration. Customer support is seen as both a cost to be managed (down) and a captive source of top-line revenue. The net result for the customer is a nasty experience: poor reliability; so-called “features” that have a slapped together, non-integrated feel; customer support that is simultaneously outrageously expensive and of very poor quality. If you are currently experiencing all this, congratulations, your vendor has LDCC syndrome.
Fortunately, there are alternatives. Companies make a name for themselves in the I.T. industry by focusing on the three key priorities in the right order – customers first, then employees, then shareholders. (You may disagree but in my opinion this is the only way new companies come to prominence in the industry.) This evidences itself for the customer in numerous ways: products that are cost-effective, easy to install & use and yet feature-rich, and are backed by customer support that far exceeds expectations.
The current line card at Southern Data Storage consists of only six vendors, and there is a reason for that. So far they are the ones we’ve identified as being the most un-LDCC-like: Nimble Storage, Unitrends, NexGen Storage, Veeam, Nasuni and Nexsan. If you think you are currently dealing with a storage or backup vendor suffering from LDCC syndrome, we’ll be happy to help you with that.
FYI, the Large Detriot Car Company skit from Elephant Parts is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEPxc3RW4js