You guys knew I couldn't resist posting in this thread, didn't you?
To answer leemc1978: 7400s don't use OSM, they use WebMMC. Be thankful we're going to the Installation Tool. WebMMC is like sticking your head in a microwave, only way less fun.
To aero: Don't need Windows? Yeah, let me know how you get along with Firefox/Konqueror/Safari/Opera there. Have you yet found the 35% of the screens that don't work AT ALL? I normally agree a lot of whining goes on here, but this is one place where the concerns are valid.
When one of us says that YOU guys asked for it, we mean it. For the entire length of my employment here the number one complaint we have had from our RSMs is that there's no web programming. For at least 2 years the Dealer Advisory Board or its' equivalent has asked for web programming.
As to why they moved away from MMCs? Because people kept complaining that MMCs are difficult to learn and they wanted a wizard-based approach to installation.
We didn't and don't develop ANYTHING to "make it easier to sell to Graybar". That's tantamount to saying "ehhh, we don't like our customers and we're really tired of getting money. Let's go ahead and alienate all our customers so we go out of business!"
We develop things because we are trying to work in our customer's best interests so you're happy and buy more so that we're happier and make more. Kind of how business works, right?
ALL of that said... I am the guy who was over WebMMC. I am the guy who was over the web programming for the 7100. I'll let you see behind the curtain a bit more than is strictly necessary.
If you want to know the reason that they are difficult to use, here it is: the Korean programmers are guys right out of college who went into code. They have never been to a customer site, installed a system in the field, or maintained a live system.
In short they don't know what we need, what YOU need. They program according to what WE tell them we need. Unfortunately I can only specify so much in a document before I am actually coding it myself. When I got WebMMC (and subsequently the web interface for the 7100) I was horrified.
Within hours of starting my testing I had 300+ issues to report. Some (*cough*most*cough*) were fundamental issues with the platforms. In the case of WebMMC it wasn't given to me until VERY late in the 7400 project, so by the time I said it was garbage it was way too late to develop a new alternative (like and OSM). Beleive it or not there's quite a bit that goes into making OSM work.
In the case of the 7100 it was a matter of priority. The telephone tab by all rights should not exist as it's slow, is KNOWN to corrupt databases and lose data. But that is why I peppered the documentation and my launch presentations with the words: DO NOT USE THE TELEPHONE TAB, IT IS NOT FOR US USE. It's not like we snuck it in and didn't tell you. The only thing I could have done to make it more clear would be to put it on the programming manual in big bold letters.
But we also knew it couldn't be fixed without scrapping it and starting over so we developed the Installation Tool. Unfortunately because the Telephone tab had been set up to use the OSM protocol, the OSM protocol had been changed over to that weird categorized system (which truth be told isn't that hard to learn, though it's admittedly annoying at first).
But the voicemail interface is something we couldn't possibly redo. It's a Linux kernel running a processor that couldn't possibly handle any kind of DOS simulation or anything. The only recourse was to fix the web tool. So that's what I concentrated on.
The voicemail is ALL that web tool should be used for. Anything else and you're taking your service profits in your hands.
The voicemail tab is still slow and is ugly and unfriendly, but there's nothing on it that's broken (unless you use a browser other than IE6). At least nothing I or the field trials could find and we were quite thorough.
The plan is to move all the 7000 series to the Installation Tool. Not my project so I can't say on if it will stay as is or go back to MMCs. The web tool will undergo changes and fixes, and unless they drive me to a psychotic break it will eventually be friendly, fast, and easy to use.
Just going to take a little evolution as I train the programmers the delicate nuances of user interface design...
