My kids are participating in a production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and it got me thinking about being earnest and keeping commitments in business – particularly in the software business. Unfortunately software vendors don’t have a very good track record.
Keeping commitments has always been difficult for the traditional legacy enterprise software vendors because their projects take so long. I was with a customer recently who told me that their SAP project was scheduled to take 5 ½ years! Long projects necessitate changes in requirements as the business evolves, staff will turnover, handoffs are dropped and consequently satisfaction will be low. Inevitably the project costs will be high! Not a pretty picture.
I have thought for some time that SaaS might offer a remedy to this age old problem. SaaS projects are much shorter and when projects are shorter it is easier to keep commitments, but this still requires the vendor to be earnest in their dealings with customers.
Recently we were competing against another SaaS vendor and they started mudslinging and fabricating stories about us to the customer. Fortunately the tactic is rarely successful, but it does continue to give the entire industry a bad name. Experience has taught customers and prospects to not believe anything a software vendor says.
You have my commitment that, although we are not perfect, we will do everything in our power to be truthful and complete in our answers to your questions, work hard to keep our commitments and, if we cannot do something, tell you plainly that we cannot and why – even if that means walking away from your business. Preserving and propagating our culture is the reason that I spend time with every new employee class talking about our culture. Hopefully you see the difference in your dealings with us. If not, please let me know.
Greg Gianforte
April 5, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Greg,
I appreciate your message. Commitment, or the lack thereof is a problem in many business relationships and I have seen it manifested in my career as well.
I have been studying RightNow as of late and am very impressed with what I have learned. It’s not just about the success stories or impressive CAGR – it’s about what is inferred from my recent experience “touching” your company. The first day that I surfed your website, I received a return sales outreach within a couple of hours. I wasn’t just pleasantly surprised – I was shocked.
Great and successful companies operate with talented people, great corporate culture, focus on the mission and most important great “touch” with their constituency – clients and prospects especially. I’d like to learn more.
My wife Cynthia (Torma) Murray grew up in Bozeman and is a proud MSU grad. We are sincerely looking at relocation to Bozeman for both personal and professional reasons. We will be there next week from April 10th departing April 13th.
I am sure that you keep an aggressive schedule, but would enjoy meeting with you if your schedule permits.
I have a strong record of achievement in sales & marketing leadership roles. My career has been in technology and more recently health & wellness. If you are looking to continue to build RightNow with talent that knows how to develop business and thoroughly understands the customer relationship, we should meet.
I will reach out more formally to your HR department and to Steve Daines who was acquainted in years past with Cynthia, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to reach out to you as well. I went to work for Hewlett-Packard back in 1992 largely due to an outreach to a CEO who I wanted to meet.
Thanks again Greg. I hope to meet you some day soon!
Don Murray
801.891.6264 mobile
remkeeper57@msn.com