Real Story Group. Make Better Technology Decisions.

Tony Byrne

Follow Tony on Twitter @TonyByrne

When your vendor tells you to shut up

12-Feb-2009

Tags: , Component Content Management, Digital and Media Asset Management, Document Management (ECM), E-mail Archiving and Management, Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software, Enterprise Search, Evaluating SharePoint, Portals and Content Integration, Web Analytics, Web Content and Experience Management, Implementation, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology

Fine summary in CIO Magazine's blog, about various customer "gag orders" some major ERP vendors are attempting to impose contractually. (Hat tip to Christine Pierpoint.)

Obviously, you shouldn't accept those. I say this not just because our vendor evaluations hinge on private customer input, but more so because it hurts you the buyer in the long run.

A big part of our reviews now focus on vendor intangibles in general, and community-oriented support in particular. Some vendors actively support candid customer interaction, while others are shockingly bad at it, or actively discourage it. To the extent you become a valued member of a customer community, the more peer support you are likely to receive, and the more your opinions will carry weight with vendor product managers setting technology roadmaps.

More egregious were vendor attempts to limit outside consultants (and presumably analysts like us) supporting buyers in contract negotiations. Hopefully you can see for yourself why you shouldn't tie your hands here.

To be fair though, let's turn the tables. Some software customers don't allow vendors to use their names -- a kind of gagging in reverse. I think that's a mistake. If you've made a good choice, then you want a fruitful, long-term relationship with your supplier. Let them display your name and itemize your success with pride -- for as long as they remain deserving of that pride...