openerp-community team mailing list archive

[Marc Pierlot <mpierlot@xxxxxxxxx>]

Parlez Français ?


2014-02-19 23:10 GMT+01:00 Peter Langenberg <peter.langenberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
:

> Marc,
>
> This is a mailing listing, please unsubscribe.
>
> https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>
> Peter
>
>
>
>
> 2014-02-19 23:08 GMT+01:00 Marc Pierlot <mpierlot@xxxxxxxxx>:
>
>> I dont like you.
>>
>>
>> 2014-02-19 21:08 GMT+01:00 Wouter Tebbens <wouter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>
>> some brief thoughts from my part:
>>>
>>> * keep the name "OpenERP"
>>> * explain both the Apps and the ERP (if it stays in the name, so you
>>> wouldn't drop it, right?)
>>> * emphasise the importance of open source and software freedom (no
>>> lock-in, free/open license, competitive market place, community, dynamic
>>> innovation through open development, standing on shoulders of giants
>>> (PostgresQL, Python, ...))
>>>
>>> As Nhomar said, open source IS a very important customer value. And even
>>> if some people don't understand much of it, I think it is very important
>>> to explain the enormous differences between free software/open source vs
>>> proprietary/closed software. It's the end of monopolies.... and
>>> customers generally do appreciate the strategic value of freedom.
>>>
>>> best,
>>> Wouter
>>>
>>> On 02/17/2014 12:11 AM, Carlos Vásquez wrote:
>>> > Hi Fabien,
>>> >
>>> > I do like your thoughts about the marketing strategy in general. I
>>> agree
>>> > with the communication techniques you propose.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > *ERP vs. Apps*
>>> >
>>> > As our fellow partners stated, the main discussion point is which image
>>> > we do want to market to our customers. Speaking about the ERP vs. Apps
>>> > approach, I kind of agree with both you and the other partners. We do
>>> > not spend one cent in marketing, we only follow-up sales of people that
>>> > contact us. For now it has been enough to keep us busy and running.
>>> > Those people who contact us are almost always looking for an ERP. We
>>> > usually have to sell an implementation project where other ERP
>>> solutions
>>> > are also participating, sometimes there are big ERP solutions (SAP,
>>> > Dynamics, Oracle, etc), and usually there are local ERP solutions. I
>>> > think dropping the ERP solution as a marketing point, would affect us
>>> in
>>> > this market.
>>> >
>>> > But, we have more and more calls from people looking for a cheaper and
>>> > faster solution for their problems. An ERP implementation is not
>>> > affordable nor suitable for their business. We are getting ready to
>>> > offer OpenERP in a way very similar to your SaaS offer. This offer will
>>> > be ready very soon and we already have several customers waiting to
>>> test
>>> > it. Also, we started doing fast, out-of-the-box implementations about 3
>>> > months ago to gain experience for our new "SaaS" offer. It has proven
>>> to
>>> > be very successful. These customers are more prone to identify
>>> > themselves with a solution marketed as business apps running together.
>>> > Here I do understand your point and it will help to bring more
>>> customers
>>> > for this line of service.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > *Open Source*
>>> >
>>> > Also, the first kind of customers are usually more interested in an
>>> Open
>>> > Source solution and they often understand its benefits and it can be an
>>> > important sale point for them. The later kind of customers, usually do
>>> > not know about Open Source, and they do not care. They need a good,
>>> > affordable and reliable solution for their needs. Open or closed is the
>>> > same for them. So again, we do have here 2 ways of marketing this
>>> > because there is in fact (as Ana said) 2 targets.
>>> >
>>> > The one thing that help us in the sale process is that our customers
>>> can
>>> > easily find us in the partners directory. The new partners page with
>>> > automatic country filter is doing a great job with this. Also the way
>>> > you redirect all kind of leads to us.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Maybe it is a good idea to separate the ERP/OpenSource and the
>>> > Apps/Product approach. Is it really necessary to choose only one way? I
>>> > always like simplicity, but in this case, focusing only one target may
>>> > be wrong, it is worth the discussion.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > *Pull strategy*
>>> >
>>> > There is one more thing I think I can give some valuable feedback. The
>>> > services you offer to partners are somewhat rigid in some cases. I
>>> would
>>> > love to sell an Enterprise contract with every OpenERP implementation.
>>> > But this is not possible. The OPW is not made for end-users, us
>>> partners
>>> > we have to take part in the process. We have worked out several bugs
>>> > with the support team. Our experience has been varied. Sometimes the
>>> > person assigned to the bug can solve the problem in a reasonable time
>>> > frame, other times we have ended up fixing it ourselves. In all cases
>>> we
>>> > have to spend at least a couple of hours in total of our time. If our
>>> > customer reports a bug, we have to test to know where is the problem.
>>> If
>>> > there is something wrong with some official code and there is an OPW
>>> > contract we can send it to your team. In most cases, your team needs
>>> > several replies from us. They usually do not do a very good job finding
>>> > the problem, we have to do some heavy testing for them as they keep
>>> > rejecting the issue of proposing some simplistic workaround. For
>>> > important bugs, we end up spending more than 2 hours answering mails
>>> and
>>> > doing remote desktop demo sessions. At the end we have to integrate and
>>> > deploy the solution. I explain all of this because we have to charge
>>> > several hours to our customers on top of an Enterprise contract. And we
>>> > also need to support the localization and customizations. The total
>>> cost
>>> > of support gets expensive. Of course your contract also includes
>>> > migration. But if we want to use this service, we also need to charge
>>> > some extra fee to migrate the localization and customizations. This is
>>> > the main reason we do not sell Enterprise contracts very often, and the
>>> > ones we have sold, are not renewing.
>>> >
>>> > For partners which do develop and do heavy customization, I find the
>>> > Enterprise service and its pricing method very rigid. I am worried
>>> > because we could work much better with your team and get you to earn
>>> > more money, which is good for all of us. And for our new "SaaS" offer,
>>> I
>>> > contacted you guys to work out something to include support from your
>>> > team in our cost structure, but the only thing you have to offer is the
>>> > regular Enterprise support with the usual "per user" pricing method.
>>> > This will at least duplicate our cost for each user. This is not
>>> > acceptable, nor is reflecting the reality. You know that in this kind
>>> of
>>> > service, the amount of support is deluded because everyone is using the
>>> > same exact code base. So we decided to go on our own, without your
>>> > support. We ran some numbers, and we think it will be cheaper to
>>> support
>>> > the platform ourselves, even with the migration process.
>>> >
>>> > So as of now, I do not think you have good service offer for us. The
>>> > pricing structure do not work outside Europe of North America. I know
>>> > and appreciate you are making efforts to adapt your prices. It has been
>>> > a very good first step. But it is not enough. You have to differentiate
>>> > configuration only partners, from development ones. We are more than
>>> > open and willing to work with you. So, even if you make a great
>>> > marketing strategy, the pull strategy you propose will not work very
>>> > well in our particular case. I think it is the best way to go, we need
>>> > to improve who does generating partners revenue will create revenue for
>>> > OpenERP S.A.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > *Recap*
>>> >
>>> > All of this said. I do appreciate your efforts to involve the
>>> community,
>>> > and do think that there are great things we (the partners) can do with
>>> > you (OpenERP S.A.). A marketing investment in marketing will benefit
>>> us.
>>> > And I do trust your judgment to integrate internal ideas with community
>>> > suggestions into an excellent marketing strategy.
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> > --
>>> > Carlos Vásquez
>>> > CTO · Director de Ingeniería
>>> > CLEARCORP S.A.
>>> >
>>> > carlos.vasquez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:carlos.vasquez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> > Cel: +(506) 8351 4484
>>> > CR: +(506) 4000 CORP (4000 2677)
>>> > US: +1 (786) 472-4267
>>> > skype: crvasquez
>>> > twitter: cvclearcorp
>>> >
>>> > 300 m. Este de la Escuela
>>> > Calle de Platanares
>>> > 11402 San Jerónimo, Moravia
>>> > San José, Costa Rica
>>> > (GoogleMaps: http://goo.gl/8YqM4S)
>>> >
>>> > http://www.clearcorp.co.cr
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>>> > Post to     : openerp-community@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>>> > More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>> >
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>>> Post to     : openerp-community@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>> Post to     : openerp-community@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openerp-community
>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>
>>
>