Friday
May182012
Dodgy characters
Friday, May 18, 2012 at 10:27PM Many moons ago I wrote a blog post asking:
"Is it unfair to characterise the IT industry as dodgy characters in cheap suits selling wish fulfilment to out of their depth executives?"
Sadly those guys have now moved on to package and sell social into the business world. People are being fleeced for over engineered, over priced and over sold bloatware. This is not in anyone's long term best interests.
Reader Comments (7)
Yes, sadly, as much as I believe in IT as an enabler to an organization and recognize the benefits of doing it well/right, the IT vendors generally seem to be interested in making the sale, not making sure the right tool is used to solve the problem. I am always doubtful of anything a vendor tells me, and always try to find some independent verification of their claims.
Let's not mention the S word, eh? ;-)
Actually, there are also some pretty good and fairly priced products out there, too. But someone who can understand the product and offer an independent view is helpful.
It will always be the case I think. Opportunists survive by...well, looking for the next opportunity! When trying to identify the snake oil salesmen, it's always good practice to look at their track records. I'm amazed how many self-proclaimed Social Business "experts" have sprung up over the past 12 months. Where were they before? Also, if anyone calls themselves an expert, they clearly don't understand the nature of the business they are in.
Agreeing with Stephen - looking down the lists of speakers at some events, I wonder who these people are and why I've never heard of them. It first hit me when I was at a social conference a couple of years ago, being lectured on Twitter in the keynote by someone who'd been using it for nine months.
The look on his face when your (Euan's) tweet about how many times he'd mentioned his product appeared on the Twitter wall behind him was worth every penny of the complementary admission.
Euan - couldn't agree more with your comments. personally I have had more than enough of social software sales guys.
Richard - agree with your thoughts too. I was recently all set to attend a certain social conference in London until I saw this year's speaker list and discovered that it had become one big sales pitch. Gone were the caliber of speakers who bought an interdependent view with lashings of genuine experience at last year's event and in were the 'experts' from company X and company Y who no doubt wanted you to hear their case studies which endorsed their products. For me this is not want I want a social conference to be.
And still there are those in organizations who think that dropping software in without any sort of work to determine proper fit with their business needs is going to get positive results. I keep hearing "If it's as intuitive as the sales guy told me, I don't need change management."
I am close to stabbing my eyes out some days.
How about stabbing theirs out instead?