Raining Data Financials Unreliable

#31

Bruce

I don't want you to think that I actually believed my own comments! I was
just suggesting that this is the way others would feel...

If you were an IT Manager, and had chosen an IBM product, which IBM then
dropped, you wouldn't feel to worried about going to your boss and
explaining that... If you had chosen QM over U2 and Martin slipped under
the proverbial bus.....

Personally, I would go with QM over U2 (I use jBASE at the mo, but I chose
that when jBASE were a small, independent outfit) for the exact opposite
reasons... But then I'm my own boss, so I don't have to worry about office
politics etc. and I like dealing with individuals rather than faceless
entities... I guess it can go both ways. For people like Ladybridge,
it's important to be able to strike the right balance to attract both
"camps" - the old "big enough to manage, small enough to care" addage!

Regards
Simon
Regards
Simon

--
================================
Simon Verona
Dealer Management Service Ltd
Stewart House
Centurion Business Park
Julian Way
Sheffield
S9 1GD

Tel: 0870 080 2300
Fax: 0870 735 0011

"Bruce Nichol" <reverse_ecurb (AT) taloncs (DOT) com.au> wrote

Quote:

On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 10:14:35 +0100, "Simon Verona" <nomail (AT) nomail (DOT) zzz
wrote:

I think your sentence "As soon as I thought enough of QM (and Martin)"
sums
up the reason why many people would be put off a conversion to QM...

The product appears to be too closely identified with a single person
(Martin) which may scare away people from the U2 camp who have the warm
fluffy big-blue IBM feel....

Please don't let any of my reasons put anybody off.

My selections were made on my criteria, and part of the appeal was the
"face" as opposed to the "faceless" nature of IBM and its myriad of
people all nothing to do with UV, or even U2, for that matter....

Frankly, I've heard more of "what happens if IBM pulls the plug?"
"What is IBM's picture for the future of U2?" "Why would IBM want to
have both UV and UD?" over the past couple of years to far outweigh
any lack of heads at Ladybridge..... And, yes, I am concerned for
the future of U2....not as much as I was a couple of years ago,
but......

The "fluffy big blue feel"? Is that what you can wrap yourself in
when you're dumped? It may be different in the good ol' US of A at
the moment, but there seems to be a definite feel of doom here in Oz
among the var community......... at least the ones I speak to.... or,
more correctly, who condescend to speak to me....

Regards,

Bruce Nichol
Talon Computer Services
ALBURY NSW Australia

http://www.taloncs.com.au

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is....

#32

Unfortunately, it seems to be the case that good Customer Support is a
rarity. Ironically, the larger the company, the worse it gets - mainly
because of the quality of the staff manning the frontline helpdesk...

Small outfits like Ladybridge have an advantage, because it's easier to keep
their core staff "close" to the customers... For example, my customers may
regularly have myself looking at a helpdesk issue that they raise - I doubt
that the MD of Raining Data ever looks directly at a customer issue, or
would even be able to assist if he did!!!

Of course, Ladybridge would have to ensure that they don't become the victim
of their own success as their user-base grows, they will need to put in
place an extra "tier" to the customer support, which will inevitably dilute
Martin's ability to communicate directly with users.

A parallel withOpenQM is jBASE. 10 years ago, I believe that jBASE was
spoken of in the same vein that Ladybridge and OpenQM is now - they were a
small core of developers who developed a superb product and delivered
excellent support by opening up the developers direct to the customers.
Now, whilst their support is good, it by no way matches the quality that it
once was. I for one miss the "old days" when I could pick the phone up and
talk direct to Greg, Pat, Alan or even on ocassion Jim!

Regards
Simon

--
================================
Simon Verona
Dealer Management Service Ltd
Stewart House
Centurion Business Park
Julian Way
Sheffield
S9 1GD

Tel: 0870 080 2300
Fax: 0870 735 0011

"Bruce Nichol" <reverse_ecurb (AT) taloncs (DOT) com.au> wrote

Quote:

On 4 Jul 2006 16:49:54 -0700, "Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au
wrote:

Bruce Nichol wrote:
SNIP
The "fluffy big blue feel"? Is that what you can wrap yourself in
when you're dumped? It may be different in the good ol' US of A at
the moment, but there seems to be a definite feel of doom here in Oz
among the var community......... at least the ones I speak to.... or,
more correctly, who condescend to speak to me....

Regards,

Bruce Nichol
Talon Computer Services
ALBURY NSW Australia

http://www.taloncs.com.au

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is....

Bruce,

I think that the "tone" you are referring to is a product of the
"rationalization" of the distribution channel, which has made some
people very "nervous"

And end-users, if I understand things correctly,

Imagine having to forego all the contact knowledge you had previously
at a var level only to find zipppppppp!, it's gone.

Overnight
Regards,

Bruce Nichol
Talon Computer Services
ALBURY NSW Australia

http://www.taloncs.com.au

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is....

#33

Jeff Caspari wrote:

Quote:

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/060630/rdta8-k.html

Comments?

A likely unrelated question, based on looking around after reading
this--

I see that Soheil Raissi is no longer on the executive team listing for
Raining Data. Did he leave RD? Who heads of Engineering for the D3
etc team? --dawn

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Raining Data Financials Unreliable

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Re: Raining Data Financials Unreliable - 07-05-2006 , 03:14 AM

Re: Raining Data Financials Unreliable - 07-05-2006 , 04:55 AM

Re: Raining Data Financials Unreliable - 07-05-2006 , 08:50 PM