Letter to Microsoft

Hey Microsoft would you like to sell me even more business software?  First, let me introduce myself.  I'm an "influential decision maker" at my 45 lawyer law firm, which means that I have a lot of say in what software we buy.  Our law firm uses Novell Netware for our network and Groupwise for our E-mail.  I have often investigated the advantage of switching to Outlook, but there is no way that we are going to switch anytime soon.  And you know what's funny?  We would like to switch.  And we would probably buy a lot more of your other software, but no one really knows what all it does. 

I think it's really strange that we live in a time where people increasingly need software to accomplish important tasks and somehow you can't get them to buy more of it.  It's taken me awhile to figure it out, but I think I know what the problem is.  You shouldn't be selling so much software.

You should be selling more "services."  If you operated your company as a service business things would be a lot different.  Your customers would be a lot happier and would trust you more, and they would buy a lot more software. 

Right now you view yourself as a "software company," which is convenient for you because all you have to do is develop software, burn it onto CD's, package and market it, and wait for people to install it.  Oh, and then of course you have to issue patches and new refinements, and also sue people for illegal piracy.  That's pretty much the business model.  Which is nice for you because you don't have to deal with that whole messy thing of interacting closely with your customer.  Customers have all kinds of complaints and problems.  And that's what consultants are for, right?

Well, here is the problem with your model from the little old end-user's point of view.  Software is a tricky thing.  If I tell the lawyers in my firm that we are going to ditch our Groupwise server and switch to Exchange they won't care.  Until they have to deal with the new software.  First they have to learn how to work it.  Then they have to suffer the inevitable little compatibility issues that require tweaking.  Our computer people will have to learn all this new stuff too.  People will complain and grouse and question the wisdom of making the switch.  And of course you aren't going to install all of this stuff for free, or even give us a one year trial to see if we like it.  So what's my incentive to stand up in a partner's meeting and boldly announce that we are switching our E-mail system over to Outlook?  Zero. Ziltch.  Nada.

Call me crazy, but it seems to me that your company would sell a lot more software if it employed people who went out into the field and helped customers in a direct fashion.  Helped them solve their compatibility problems and gave them real guidance.  Learned from that direct interaction what features customers need and don't need, and what compatibility issues exist first hand (not from having the software report its own failing to a nameless IP address with a database).   In fact, here's a really crazy idea.  Give people the software.  Let them use it free for a year, and charge them for the service of maintaining it.  Do something, anything, that gets you closer to your customers.  

I work in a high-rise building, which obviously has elevators.  Those elevators need to function or people can't get to and from their offices.  I notice there are always a couple of Otis Elevator guys in the neighborhood.  There are a lot of high-rise buildings in the neighborhood, and Otis knows that it needs to keep its customer's elevators working or they aren't going to be happy.  Maybe Otis could out-source that responsibility, but then it wouldn't be able to control the level of service, and to insure that it is high. 

I'm sure that comparing Microsoft's products to a mechanical device like an elevator is ridiculous to you.  You know more about your business than I do.  It costs money to develop a bunch of guys to send out into the field, and there will be all sorts of issues that you will have to work through.  So maybe it isn't worth the time and trouble for you to develop a more service-oriented model of business.  All I know is that usually when I am motivated to buy something I usually wind up buying it.  With your products it's the opposite.  I wonder if any of your other customers feel the same way that I do?

Last update: 6/5/2003; 10:08:19 PM.