A hat tip to George Dearing (@georgedearing) for pointing me to a report by SandHill.com and Neochange on success factors for enterprise software vendors. Called "Achieving Enterprise Software Success", it offers the findings of a survey of software buyers and sellers "on the definitions, expectations and achievement of enterprise software success."
Based upon the survey, the number one driver leading to the return on software investment is "ensuring effective usage of software in the enterprise." This is not surprising considering that enterprise software has been plagued for so many years by the problem of shelfware and long time-to-value. The report makes the great point that what's happened is that vendors have left it up to buyers to drive deployment of the software. In fact, buyers expect the opposite, and vendors that partner with customers long after the sale have great growth opportunities. The report concludes with 5 tips for how vendors can take advantage of these opportunities.
I've embedded the full report below (thanks again to George for putting it on Scribd). It's a great report, but it falls a little short on the prescription for how vendors can support their customers on effective adoption. I'll add to the list...
This is a prime example of how social media should be applied. The following would go a long way towards giving customers the support they need.
- A blog by a senior product executives that talks exclusively about the problems your customers have and how you solve them. Share insight about how customers can approach deployment based upon your actual experiences solving customer challenges. Invite customers to comment with their questions and experiences to respond back and use for ongoing blog fodder.
- Regular monitoring of Twitter, where more and more IT pros are talking about the products they are using and the experiences they are having. After determining whether customers are talking about you, join Twitter to engage them and show you're listening and there to help.
- Listening on key IT social networks like Informed Networker and IT Toolbox, where many IT pros start their day. They're sharing what they think are hot and helping each other out with problems. Enter this conversation with the same intention and lead them back to the information and knowlege you have on your blog.
- Consider creating your own online customer community to deliver knowledge and create a place for customers to connect with their peers, all in the interest of encouraging user adoption and success.
I could go on with a more complete list, but what would you add to it?
Achieving Enterprise Software Success
