Sony Vaio Support

In a post entitled In praise of Sony Vaio support by David Terrar at Business Two Zero, he airs his frustrations in relation to difficulties he was having with his Sony Vaio SZ laptop, and the subsequent quest for a solution.

David says:

"The battery on my Sony Vaio SZ Laptop failed. It’s out of first year Sony warranty, but still under a John Lewis two year guarantee. John Lewis regard batteries as consumables, and so their guarantee doesn’t apply - doh! Sony’s battery problems are well documented. After a little research I found a forum where people were relating exactly my problem on my model PC, with some who’d got battery replacements from Sony outside of warranty. When I contacted Vaio Laptop Support, explained and pointed them to this forum, they sent me a replacement battery, no questions asked. Excellent. "

This is a great example of how, with a little bit of searching, the web can help facilitate consumer knowledge sharing to the benefit of all.

The forum he was referring to was here. Sony also have an online user community for customers to collaborate as described in my recent case study post here - Sony Vaio Community .

I say well done to David. How many of us would have given up and just bought a new battery in this situation? Maybe the collaborative sharing emerging in blogs etc, will empower the consumer!

Case Study: Sony VAIO community

Sony VAIO community: Taking advantage of Online Communities for generating Innovative Ideas

[Robert Tietz & Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt]

What is the case study about?
It’s about the potential online communities can bring to pretty much any business. This is shown on an example of Sony Corporation and its line of VAIO computers.

What is the organisation?
Sony Corporation is one of the leading electronic and entertainment companies in the world.

What are the technology issues?
For many, Sony is perceived a fashionista accessory rather than a working tool. It is often over-priced and under-performing and this is most likely the main technological issue for this company. It is now seen as becoming more of a fashion house than a technology innovator.

Who are the principal actors?
Sony brand, Sony support and outside people interested in Sony.

What types of data were collected?
It can be considered both qualitative and quantitative because Webforums (other name for the described online communities) are a great source of both.

From which sources did they come?
In this case, all the data is coming from the Webforum.

How was the data recorded?
It is saved in the database. Any forum software has a database behind the scene and this one is no exception. Since mvnForum is a Java based application, the DB can be any supporting JDBC interface.

What was the situation previously?
CRM and market research.

What innovations have been introduced?
It is not clear what innovations were introduced in the company’s main business but the online community creation can be seen as an innovation in itself.

What were the general outcomes of this innovation?
People interested in Sony VAIO products could come to the site and utilise the public Knowledge and experience. And it this mutually beneficial process they (outside people) could become a source of innovation themselves.

What new technology has been introduced for this innovation?
The VAIO online community was built by nascom.be on mvnForum software and so is a Java based application using JDBC to communicate to databases. What databases are used is not clear and if there are some advanced database techniques used (like data-mining) is not known either.

What went well in this innovation?
· People came;
· People talked;
· People criticised;
· People suggested;
· Customers have become Prosumers.