On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:47:51 EST, Benjamin Everist said:
> I am charged with putting together a proposal for supporting listserv within
> our organization.  Part of that proposal are some risk mitigation costs; if
> our sysadmin gets hit by a bus, is there contracted support available
> specifically for listserv, either through lsoft or a third party?

If you're looking at *serious* risk mitigation costs, you really want to
investigate two options:

1) Have *two* (or more) sysadmins, and make sure they're cross-trained in
each other's duties and up-to-date documentation is maintained.

2) Outsource your IT.

I suspect that either option will be cheaper than what it would cost to
go through the entire list of applications (including Listserv) that you
run, and buy such a support contract for each.

(One reason outsourcing can be more economical than a "jump in and take over"
support contract is because for the latter, the company has to keep a few
rock stars around who can figure their way around a poorly documented,
heavily customized install.  If it's outsourced, most of the work can be done
by junior staff, simply because any good outsourcing company *knows* what
the config is because they documented all the changelogs.)