So there is a particular security product manufacturer that Accuvant sells that I cannot name since I will get in trouble (love ya’ Dan!) that has a good product, but their support has been horrendous lately. Actually, even their product has been slipping, now that I think of it. And it is starting to hurt the relationship we have with a couple of customers because we recommended the product back when they were kicking some major butt all around. And it really just pisses me off because this started just a few months before they got bought by a big company. Oops, man, that probably gave it away, didn’t it? Huh? Wadda mean there’s only been about 20 companies that fit that description? Oh yeah…
As I was saying, this started just a few months before the announcement of their getting snapped up. This just seems backwards to me. Does management just get that distracted that their quality starts sucking wind? Shouldn’t they be trying to concentrate more on quality? Maybe the deal was pretty much done and they figured what the heck? The new guys will clean up the mess?
I experienced that back when Juniper bought Netscreen as well. I was a customer, and their support went straight to hell for about a year, then it all came back together. But I kinda expected that to happen. That was a big deal. The company I am talking about is not that big, so there should not be a drop in quality like that. And the Juniper / Netscreen issues didn’t start until AFTER the buy out. This is happening BEFORE the buy out.
So if there are any manufacturers reading right now, please think about this. If you are getting ready to sell, please do everything you can to maintain quality in your product and support. Don’t screw over your employees (don’t know if that is happening here, but the drive of the sales team seems to have dropped dramatically). Because if your quality drops, I am going to quit recommending you, and so will a lot of people. Of course, if you already have your money and are at the beach, you are probably not reading this and couldn’t give less of a crap anyway.
Vet
