Guidelines for posting threads

[Richard Rabins]

Re: Guidelines for posting threads

I would say that is one piece of evidence that shows that Alpha may be going in "full panic mode" right now. It sees it has manoeuvred themselves in a tricky situation and it does not know a way out yet. Hence in blind panic it is deleting threads as a symbol for deleting threats to Alpha.

Several things are clear: taking in that many high-payroll-position employees is going to propel costs upward like crazy. Especially in times of economical crisis. Costs that we all will have to pay. Alpha is filled up with CEO's, CTO's, Presidents and a truckload of Vice-Presidents who all want to drive "a Mercedes" on our expense. That is enough to pull almost ANY Business Plan sideways for ANY small company. For such a small company I would say it's almost laughable. There are more chiefs than foot soldiers. And sales of v12 seem to have stuck (which does not surprise me a bit). At some point, this must lead to internal frictions and feelings of panic.

The number of posts for desktop in the v12 forum shows that virtually nobody from the old desktop developers is upgrading to v12. There even aren't new customers in effective numbers asking questions. The reason for that is clear to me: Alpha has failed to built in strong points of sale for v12 for the desktop crowd, OR it fails to "sell" the new features to that group, which happens to be the roots-customer group of Alpha. That is a dire mistake. Any company wanting to expand operations has to cherish it's roots customer group since otherwise it will have no fall-back if things do not go as planned. There have been many reasonable questions on this board with regards to "what is new for the desktop in v12" but none were answered to satisfaction. Only with advertising language like "huge amount of work" and stuff like that you would expect in any average toothpaste commercial. That does not work with developers. We want facts. And after those questions popped-up, what did Alpha do to answer them? Nothing. I find that rather amazing. To me, it starts to look like roadrunner running full speed towards a cliff.

Alpha needs to step back on its footprints until the exact moment it went wrong and decide for a new course. Painful maybe, but necessary and life-saving.

If I were Alpha, I would start forming a "customer advisory board" to ensure that the voice of the customer does not get killed (like it is now) but heard instead. Alpha needs to understand that it builds products for its customers. Not for any virtual customer that may be attracted but is not in the house yet.

Unlike most here, I am not that in favor of taking in "experience of the past". In IT, nothing is about the past, it's all about the future. Like some enlightened brain here said a few days ago: they need to enroll bright and talented young people that may not know how things were done in the dark past, but that do have a vision of how things will be done tomorrow. Not because they reason from past experience, but because they are standing with one foot in the now, and one foot in the future. Google has made that philosophy to a type of Art and proves on a daily basis that it works. And by this I do not mean enroll talented young programmers who can dance the dance from the past. Instead of old rock-and-rollers or hippie-era managers we need sprankling young visioneers. Hard to find, yes, but because of that a priceless virtualizer for ANY IT company who has to be up in front of the line. Alpha has never done a good job of being in front of the line. It has never been a trend-setter but always a trend-follower. In due time.

Did I just delete this whole thread?

Marcel - Sales of v12 are more than meeting expectations and the internal mood at Alpha is very good.

Also your assertion about "truckload of Vice-Presidents who all want to drive "a Mercedes" on our expense. " is simply nonsense. Alpha employees are on a mission to build really productive and exciting software and also put developers using Alpha in a very strong competitive position. Have you taken the time to read this http://server.alphasoftware.com/mark...elopers?ecid=# . There is demand out from customers - my 2 cents is "go and focus on meeting that demand and growing your consulting business!"