The conspicuous lack of PSC presence on Progress Communities is of course unsurprising in light of the company's long time embrace of "Stealth Marketing" but it really isn't beneficial to anyone.
The following article in this week's Computerworld has some interesting things to say about choosing not to engage:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135515/United_Air_Lines_learns_the_power_of_viral_revenge
The point I'm making isn't so much about any specific "revenge" scenario nor is it about PSC needing to use Twitter or Facebook. The point is that PSC is not engaged. Among (many) other things it hurts them every time a propsective customer drops in here to see what sort of support they can expect to receive. Mostly dead forums with a smattering of unanswered questions (many of which seem, at least superficially, to be softballs) with the occasional rambling debate from a handful of "the usual suspects" doesn't give anyone the warm fuzzies.
If the point of PSDN is just to give the sales people the ability to check off "online support forum" whenever asked then I guess this site is doing its job. I suppose 99.44% of those people never actually come to visit the site so it must be a success?
It's a shame really. It could be a lot better with just a little bit of support and attention.
Their presence is not gonna help. We usually change our topic when they're around. We know they are just spying and are not really serious in helping user community with any sort of fees.
I hope no one gets the wrong idea Progress Software products like the DB, 4GL(ABL), etc. are really good products.
jaydalla schrieb:
Their presence is not gonna help. We usually change our topic when they're around. We know they are just spying and are not really serious in helping user community with any sort of fees.
Well, Harvard for instance who just helped you in another thread is working for PSC - and I guess it was helpful for you.
Do you have a sample for your conspiracy theory? Bad experience?
mikefe wrote:
jaydalla schrieb:
Their presence is not gonna help. We usually change our topic when they're around. We know they are just spying and are not really serious in helping user community with any sort of fees.
Well, Harvard for instance who just helped you in another thread is working for PSC - and I guess it was helpful for you.
Do you have a sample for your conspiracy theory? Bad experience?
I think he was being sarcastic, Mike..
Yes, Havard helped and I thank him for that.
There are 2 groups here, the way I see it,
1 - The individual employed Progress highly technical professionals who are very helpful individuals, and,
2 - the corporate PSC presence from which generally comes from Sales, Marketing, Support, and sometimes heads of other departments like Professional Services, Development, etc.
Whenever you go to Progress Exchanges and other meetings, the PSC presence will usually come from group 2. By the way, this is not the same in UK or Australia, their structure there is very effective and really promotes the product. I hope the general atmosphere has changed in North America.
I don't have any conspiracy theory, but I have can tell you of my experiences a few years back.
As an ex-Progress employee (Global Professional Services), I was scolded by my managers a few times for assisting customers without a mentoring contract. I was also reprimanded once for solving the customers problem in a day instead of 5 days as this affected the booked revenue.
As a customer, after a lengthy talk to the reps about our issues, (they seem be taking notes), the responded back with a sales pitch and no more reference to anything technical that was mentioned in the meeting which they said they'll get back to us.
As a customer again, I used to phone in Progress support for report Progress BUGs (for example, AI stops applying after 65,535 extent) but is now prevented from reporting these since I used a serial number issued by ISV. I told them, can I change to a serial number that was purchased directly. They said no.
From my friend's experience, - Progress reps asked how they are using the product. A few day later, they get a big bill for using a second machine. Was not even informed to be license compliant first.
Of course these are from my perspective, you may have nice tele-tubby experience with PSC (the corporate).
is progress a software company or a service/consulting company ?
are they interested in building a community or they don't want any competitors ?