August 22nd, 2007
Stop enterprise software hype: send me your stories
It’s time to take a cold, hard look at enterprise software vendor hype.
You know what I’m talking about: vague, empty promises that don’t come true. Sometimes it’s a sales pitch promising fast, easy, and cheap implementations; other times, it’s a killer feature that never seems to work as promised. In every case, the beautiful story has a sad ending.
I’m not alone in my weariness over vendor hype. The quotes below are both written by purchasing and vendor negotiation experts. These folks are paid to cut through to the truth.
Vinnie Mirchandani, professional software sourcing advisor and fellow Enterprise Irregular, writes:
I find many vendor marketing and investor relations folks live in a dream world. What they put in their brochures and investor packages is to them the only version of truth.
And Jason Busch, author of corporate procurement blog SpendMatters, and another Enterprise Irregular, adds:
If I were in the market for an eProcurement myself, the first question I’d want to ask a vendor is what percentage of their sold seats and features are actually in use — not about some whiz-bang desktop integration or uber-cool UI.
Like many practitioners, I’m fed up with vendor hype and incomplete deployments or rollouts.
I’m tired of these fairy tales, and you should be as well.
Send in your stories about enterprise software hype and I’ll post some of the best. Anonymous submissions are welcome. To contact me, go to this bio page, and click the link that says Email Michael Krigsman.
Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a software and consulting company dedicated to reducing software implementation failures. Click here to discuss this post with him on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 08/22/07
