Technology Providers Fake Enterprise

Is your technology vendor comprised of two guys in a month-to-month office using programmers overseas with no tech support?

WAV Group works with a lot of enterprise organizations in real estate on technology planning and product acquisition. There are about 12 legitimate technology firms who can provide services to firms with more than 600 users today. The rest are want-to-be firms that have little clue about how to support big customers. Very few technology providers have the staff to support an enterprise client with ongoing development, communication, training, and support. Choosing the right one requires the purchaser to do a lot of internal soul searching to understand the boundaries between what the vendor will do or not do to support the business.

The most popular article from last week's WAV Group Newsletter was titled "Stop Buying Technology." To quote a friend I spoke to yesterday, the market is saturated with anticipointment – unfulfilled technology promises. Companies purchase applications because they sound great and claim increases in productivity, recruiting or retention, but they do not deliver.

We are currently fielding six concurrent broker assessments to determine the satisfaction levels across enterprise firms with technology. Our research is detailed and comprehensive. It combines qualitative telephone interviews with quantitative surveys. We inventory every technology solution across the firm and learn about adoption, usage, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. We cross tabulate the results by business productivity, years in real estate, age, and region. We learn, very specifically, the role that a technology solution plays in the success of a company.

Communications, training, and support (CTS) play the most important role in supporting enterprise applications. If the vendor is going to deliver those services, they need monthly newsletters, training tree times a week (beginner, intermediate, and expert), and help desk or support is ideally 24-7-365. A note about support: you would be shocked to learn how many agents do their technology work at night or early in the morning.

How much CTS do you need? That depends on how long the product has been deployed. If you are rolling out something new, it is crucial that you provide hands on introduction training in every office at least three times. After that, you can follow up with a class a month. This is supplemented with webinars every week. We recommend one full-length webinar each month that is recorded. The supplemental webinars are more like training sessions where you highlight a small sample of features then answer questions. Sending out weekly emails with tips and tricks is vital to drive adoption and application usage. The top reasons why users to not use a technology service are a) Never heard of it, b) Don't know how to log in, c) I keep forgetting about it, and d) I tried it and it was too hard to use.

The title to this post is that Technology Vendors Fake Enterprise. I say this because very few technology companies support the software services they offer with the CTS that an enterprise firm needs to successfully drive adoption and usage. So many of them make the sale and melt into the background. Very few have a driving ambition to become the most valuable application that their client uses. As a result, the enterprise picks up the responsibility for CTS, and most do not do an extraordinary job. Again – the survey measures satisfaction with communications, training and support. After the user puts a value on CTS, we probe with an open end question; "Why did you say that?" They tell us exactly why they like or dislike the CTS.

Perhaps the easiest answer to enterprise is to stop buying so much stuff. A completely opposite approach is to buy multiples of everything. There are a number of MLSs and brokers that pay technology vendors by the user count. It compels the vendor to drive adoption and usage by aggressively engaging in CTS. The more stuff, the merrier as long as the vendors eat what they kill.

If you run an enterprise technology firm, we can assess the strengths of your CTS so you can get better. It will increase the value of your offering to reduce attrition and attract users for life. Pick up the phone and call us if you are dedicated to stop wasting money on technology that nobody uses. You will be glad you did.