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Small Software Companies: The other side of the coin
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Posted by Phil
Mar 7, 2007 at 11:35 PM
To Daly and others discussing ADM,
I’m not suggesting that anyone on this forum is deliberately trying to sink any product. I am merely pointing out that, sometimes, people on these products’ OWN forums appear to be doing so. In fact, I’m not talking about people on this board at all, who in general care enough about good software to spend time debating it and are clearly among any small company’s biggest supporters.
In fact, if anyone reading this thinks “He’s talking about me and what I said about ADM,” don’t, because I’m not. Let’s try to transcend the specific circumstances of that specific example and think more broadly.
Instead I am pointing out that collectively consumers of software can help to create conditions which do not serve their own long term interests in having the product succeed. And uninformed criticality is one of those conditions. I think this sort of thing DOES have an effect on casual possible buyers wandering by and ends up eroding the base of customers. Further, though, it erodes these companies desire to continue to participate in an ungrateful marketplace. None of us would speak to a colleague at our own places of employment in the way that support staff at a given small company software forum are spoken to? Often, the “support staff” is the developer himself. I don’t think “they should be tough” is an adequate answer to that problem, even though I agree that some companies do it much better than others.
I don’t know ADM, wasn’t burned by them, wouldn’t try to defend their specific behaviors, etc. But I do think that they are probably like many other small companies (who fail every week) who started out trying to create a better mousetrap and couldn’t make the economics work. Unlike most other products, people seldom buy the software in front of them, they buy its future features. They don’t buy 5.0, they buy the 6.0 beta they are supposed to get in six months, even though they have 5.0 to use now. And, occasionally, companies go out of business in-between. There is nothing nefarious in that. It’s a condition of the specific marketplace we’re in. Unfortunately, it sets back software over time because the next company that comes along to enter that market has to spend 75% of its time reimplementing the basic functions that previous products did adequately. It’s no wonder that the features and functions of software aren’t progressing as quickly as they should.
Most importantly, what can we do about it? What people on this forum say influences a lot of others who are looking for software. Outlinersoftware serves as an important place where people casually investigating the quality of a company they saw on a Google ad get verification to encourage their purchase. That’s something many folks on this forum already do well. They tell you when they like software and they tell you why.
Lastly, people here are also participants in the forums of the software they buy. And when you see the kinds of things I’m talking about, step up and defend your favorite small software company, in its forum and elsewhere. When you see a misinformed judgment about a product you use, correct it! It’s in all of our best interest!
-Phil
P.S. This post is as much to influence thousands of others who wander by this forum as to preach to the frequent-posting choir.