Byrne Tony Byrne

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New Year's resolution for vendors

2-Jan-2007

Tags: Portals and Content Integration, Web Content and Experience Management, Building Business Case, Marketplace at Large

When I talk to software vendors about customer projects that got seriously delayed or have failed outright, the response is almost invariably: "implementation problem." That's code-speak for the customer or integrator (or both) screwing up. Sometimes this rings true, though I suspect more commonly implementation troubles result from a poor product fit. In a world where software vendors dominate marketplace conversations -- by underwriting conferences, the trade press, webinars, white papers, and trade associations -- assigning blame to others for our industry's ridiculously low success rate is weaseling out. I'm not advocating vendor altruism, but a longer-term view of survival based on incremental customer value rather than customer lock-in. This means targeting more than just "standing up" an initial implementation so that license revenue can get recognized on the books. It means working with customers to define what constitutes business success and doing what it takes to get them there.

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