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List:       solid
Subject:    Solidtech business model
From:       jim () rubylane ! com
Date:       2000-12-21 16:33:10
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I have filled out the form on Solidtech's site for a sales person to 
call me, and posted a note on this mailing list to find out how to
upgrade to Solid 3.x.  I still have not received a response.

I know there was some sort of "re-focusing" done a year or so ago, but
it is odd that customers cannot figure out how to pay Solidtech more
money to upgrade.

I believe Solidtech is missing a good opportunity in the DB
marketplace.  We do not want Oracle - too much hassle.  We do not run
NT, so Microsoft is out.  We would gladly pay something like
$1000/year to license Solid for our site and get just email tech
support.  Because Solid is so reliable and trouble-free, I think this
would be a money-maker for Solidtech.  As it is now, we paid $800
three years ago and are happy with Solid 2.X, but I feel like I should
donate money to Solidtech for the great product we have been using.

Focusing sales on companies that are going to generate big orders is
not without its pitfalls: these companies do have technical staffs,
but their projects tend to be much more complex than the average
user, so Solidtech may end up spending more resources on this one
large customer than on 100 "average" customers.  If there were an
inexpensive annual license with no per-machine/per-CPU restrictions,
I think small and medium-sized companies would be very interested.

Paying for tech support is not, in my opinion, as good of a business
model.  Solid is very reliable, so if I were paying $1000/yr to get
tech support and didn't have any problems, I'd drop it.  Also, paying
an annual license and getting (email) tech support free is appealing
to customers because Solidtech will have a vested interest in keeping
Solid a low-maintenance, low-headache product.  

Jim
www.rubylane.com

> 
> On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Kyosti Laiho wrote:
> 
> > Solid-list is more a user community mailing-list, Solid will not
> > provide technical support through this channel.
> 
> While I understand the difference between this mailing list and the paid
> technical support, I think it's a shame for a company to choose to exclude
> itself, by definition, from the "community."
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> 

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