The Kaleidescape experience - more than just cover art

This week I visited Integrated System Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam for two days. I took the oppertunity to go to some of the Kaleidescape training to get more details about the system. The training was quite basic because of the time constraints but the interesting parts was the Q&A and the presentations of how Kaleidescape operated as a company.

There are four things which I like to share:

1) Kaleidescape consider it their problem if the system doesn't work as a user would expect. An example of how they apply this is when importing DVD or CD:s which are not recognized by Kaleidescape. Instead of telling the user that they should enter the details themselves Kaleidescape offers to provide the user (or dealer) with shipment boxes so the disks can be shipped to them so Kaleidescape can enter the details for the user into the system.

2) Developed the system from the ground up. Kaleidescape have built everything in their system, from their OS - Keaos, to the hardware all within the company. Both the software and the hardware was designed just for their own purposes and the complexity has therefor been minimized which in return has maximizes the reliability.

3) Dedicated services, Kaleidescape is more than just the hardware that you buy, it's the experience from using their meta data of DVD:s and music, all freely available to the user.

4) Full support, this is something that I actually got verified just as I came back from ISE. Kaleidescape has a 24/7 monitoring service of all their equipment, if any problem is reported by the hardware Kaleidescape will be notified and they will contact the user (through the dealer) to handle the problem before the user even have noticed the problem. As I came back from ISE I had an e-mail waiting for me that there might be a problem with one of the drives in the server. They asked me to verify that it was properly sealed and if that was not the problem they would go ahead and send a replacement unit out to the dealer. I checked the drive and just as they had expected it was not properly inserted. This really improves the trust in their system and you are probably thinking like I did that this must be how Kaleidescape get their concurrent income - was I wrong, Kaleidescape does all of this free of charge, the user would not even have to pay for the replacement unit if it had to be sent out. And in the extremely rare situations that the data would be corrupted Kaleidescape will restore the data for you. That is what I would call a full commitment!

I can only say that my impression of Kaleidescape so far is nothing but great, you surely pay the big bucks for the gear but there simply is no comparison to the value that you get with it. If you like to get satisfied customer make sure that you consider their problems to be your own and than build your organisation around that idea, I believe that is one of the reason behind Kaleidescapes success, besides their grate products of cause.