That’s Right Ariba, CombineNet, Emptoris, Hubwoo, Oracle, and SAP — I Called You Out!

To get right to the point, as far as I’m concerned, unless you have something to hide, there’s no reason not to give SI a demo of your publicly available solution. Because, despite what you may think, or what some misinformed individual might have told you,

  • I’m not going to steal your IP.
    Unless you show me the code, there’s no way I could steal anything. (And since I only need to see the application working to do a review, there’s no reason I’d ever need to see under the hood.)
  • I’m not going to expose your secrets.
    While I’m always interested in what’s coming down the pipe, for the purposes of a product review, I only care about what you have now — (about to be) released in(to) the public domain. There’s not much secret there — and while I may ask about company performance, plans, etc., if they’re still hush-hush, you don’t have to tell me.
  • I’m not biased against you.
    I might think a few select individuals who (used to) work for you aren’t very bright, but I know that one bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch and even if I think that your marketing or communications team could use an upgrade, I know that these aren’t the people building or deploying the product in your customer sites. Thus, any personal opinions I have about a few marketing or communications people aren’t going to affect my analysis of the product and delivery.
  • I’m not going to give you a bad review
    unless you give me a PowerPoint demo. If you don’t believe me, look through the hundred plus reviews I’ve done over the last four and half years and try to find one bad product review. While it is true that not all of them are glowing, it’s also true that in each and every review I looked for the positives and the differentiators and did my best to give a fair and balanced review to anyone who took the time to give me a demo.  SI’s #1 goal is to inform its readers, and nothing informs them more than a fair, open, review of your solution (that’s totally free to you).
  • It is in your best interest.
    Even if you are an 800lb gorilla, this doesn’t mean that every buyer is going to associate you with best-of-breed in the application category they are looking for or going to invite you to the table without reading some objective analysis. While it’s true you don’t need the exposure as much as a number of other mid-size and smaller vendors in the space need it, and that it’s unlikely I’m going to get a call from you along the lines of “thanks to your post I just got a six figure deal I wouldn’t have known about otherwise as we’d never have been invited to the table or thought to call this company who reached out to us” (and, yes, I have gotten calls and e-mails like this), every product review post contributes to the snowball effect. The more blogs you’re reviewed on, the more likely it is that the larger mid-market companies you want so badly (as the top tier is getting crowded) are going to put you on a short-list.

If you decide to change your mind and give me a demo, I’ll make myself available to the best of my ability through the end of May. (Just send an e-mail to thedoctor <at> sourcinginnovation <dot> com.) It’s up to you.  Just remember that for every company that won’t give SI a demo, there are dozens that will. (So many, in fact, that if I put out an open call, I can get more requests in a short time than I can handle because a fair review takes a significant investment of time on my part.) Plus, I always have something to write about, and, in the worst case scenario, if asked, I can always recommend your competition instead. Your call.