7 common lies told by enterprise software sales people

By Michael Krigsman

Lie 1. My solution is the one that best meets your needs

When I said, "My solution is the one that best meets your needs," what I meant was that I'm going to do my darnedest to shoe horn my product into your world so that you'll buy my stuff versus the competitors.

You [shouldn't] buy products because they have this or that. [B]uy them because of what they'll do for you and the ecosystem you operate within.

Key questions to ask the sales person: What 3 companies are your fiercest competitors and what would they say they do better than you? The last time you lost a deal to your competition, what were the main reasons given?

Lie 2. My solution does not require much of your company's IT resources

When I said, "My solution does not require much of your company's IT resources," what I meant was that with a 95% degree of certainty, your IT department will be the biggest roadblock to success that we'll encounter in this project.

Key questions to ask the sales person: When (not if) you run into smoke screens, road blocks, and obstacles thrown up my IT department, are you prepared to deal with them and how? If we cut through all of the crap, how much time does it really take to deploy this solution, excluding training?

Lie 3. My solution is supported well

When I said that, "My solution is supported well and my company hangs its hat on the best service in the industry," what I meant was that when you call, a human will pick up the phone and get on your problem right away, delaying someone else's due date for customized solution delivery.

The bottom line with custom software in the enterprise is that it breaks. How many times have you rebooted today?

Key questions to ask the sales person: Do you have an automated system or a human system when I call your support line? What bug tracking or trouble ticket solution to you use? What your average time from call in to resolution? What is your process for escalation?

Lie 4. My solution will save you time and money

When I said, "My solution will save you time and money," what I meant was that your company will probably achieve enough Return On Investment to pay for the solution…but you'll end up using 10% of what the solution can do and end up frustrated after the honeymoon period.

Most enterprise solutions have evolved because complex businesses have insisted that new features be built as a condition of sale.

Key questions to ask the sales person: What percentage of features in this system do your clients typically use? If I want to reduce the training required by half to save money, will you let me?

Lie 5. That will take 2…maybe 3 weeks to develop

When I said, "That will take 2 maybe 3 weeks to develop", what I meant was I really don't know how long your customization will take so I'm throwing out a number that will get you to bite…not balk."

If the delivery dates of complex customizations seems unrealistic…even to you, they probably are.

Key questions to ask the sales person: What is your process for documenting change requests? If your development efforts fall behind schedule, what's my compensation?

Lie 6. Here are my prices

When I said, "Here are my prices", what I meant was "My price is totally flexible and within reason I'll probably say yes to lowering them because we need your upfront money and recurring revenue more than I need my pride."

Pricing enterprise solutions is far more art than science. Often it's more about discovering the target's pain tolerance.

Key questions to ask the sales person: How much does the solution cost? What's the typical payback or return on investment you've measured when companies like mine have deployed your solution and can you provide me case studies?

Lie 7. Here are my contract terms and conditions

When I said, "Here are my contract terms and conditions", what I meant was "This is pretty much a boiler plate agreement that no one reads so if you challenge some terms…you'll probably get what you want."

[M]ost enterprise solution firms don't even know what the terms in their own contract mean. If something appears strange to you or is unclear, challenge it. Don't be afraid.

Key questions to ask the sales person: Is this agreement flexible and negotiable? What's the one contract term that clients challenge the most?"

THE PROJECT FAILURES ANALYSIS

If you're contemplating an enterprise solution, read Doug's book to help protect your own hide from evil, miscreant, and wayward sales people. I really enjoy how his sardonic humor matches the subject matter. For example:

On lying:

Is lying requisite? No. Sales people are not lying, they are simply framing the truth in a way that closes the deal and provides a big payday [for the sales person].

On enterprise solution (ES) pricing:

The ES is often quite expensive to buy upfront. This upfront price loading is where the ES software company recovers the immense cost of sales associated with the ES including commissions, bonus payments to company officers, investor dividends, and really nice cars for the President.

On the subject of enterprise sales people:

Better enterprise solution selling organizations send two people on the tactical assault mission: One suit. One techie. The suit acts as translator when the techie…lays out something intelligent for your consumption. That back and forth tech translation orgy is meant to disarm the prospective buyer or baffle him sufficiently into writing a check for the panacea product that will make his boss happy with him…or close out the never ending 6-Sigma project from hell.

 

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Six dirty tricks from enterprise vendors

• Author: Michael Krigsman

Here's Dan's list of six tricks enterprise vendors use against customers, but the descriptions are mine:

1. The magic demo. Using presentation slides and canned demonstrations, the vendor claims to solve the customer's most challenging problems. It's all good, except when there is no real product to back up the promises.
2. Underbid, then overcharge. A beautiful trick often played elegantly by consulting companies and system integrators. These folks neglect to inform the customer that the initial software purchase price does not include much higher associated costs for equipment and implementation services.
3. The customer headlock. One of the cleverest tricks in the book, this one uses high switching costs to lock-in customers. The time, cost, and hassle of swapping enterprise systems mean vendors have their customers by the… well, you know what.
4. The billing "mistake." Really a utility services game, providers over-charge customers with incorrect invoices, knowing few will notice and complain. Sleaze at its finest.
5. The forced upgrade march. Upgrades make the software business a beautiful thing-for the vendor. The customer's system may work well, but when vendors tell customers to upgrade or lose support, the buyer has little choice but to play sheep.
6. The clueless customer. Less a trick than an unpleasant fact, remember there are two parties to all these tricks: vendor and customer. Inattentive or inexperienced customers are often their own worst enemy.

The project failures analysis

Strategic enterprise software purchases are complicated to buy and expensive to implement. Since these products automate core business functions, they reflect genuine complexity in the buyer's organization. Some vendors use this complexity unfairly to manipulate potential customers into making uninformed and poorly considered purchases.

In general, the software itself is not to blame; these are human, not technical, issues. It's worth noting that some observers incorrectly believe that faulty software causes most IT failures. That perspective is wrong and misinformed.

Enterprise customers should treat software purchases with the same care and attention as buying a home: research the vendor, talk with other customers, and ask objective, third-party experts for advice. Although enterprise software is a minefield, many customers do buy and implement successfully.

The tricks described in this post range from subtle persuasion to outright deception. However, they all rely on aggressive vendors taking advantage of uninformed customers. In the end, caveat emptor applies and education is the great force for achieving success.

Have you seen vendors play these tricks or others? Please share your thoughts!

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10 things you can do to keep Outlook running smoothly

• Author: Erik Eckel

 

1: Don't click on attachments

It should go without saying, but I still encounter clients every month who infect their machines and cripple Outlook (and other applications) because they absentmindedly click on executable files and other attachments received in email messages. One of the best defenses against email borne viruses and infections is to simply avoid clicking on attachments or hyperlinks received within email messages.

2: Empty the trash

Outlook stores messages, including large attachments, in one file (typically known as the Personal Folders File, which uses a .pst file extension, or Offline Folder, which uses an .ost file extension). That storage file includes the Deleted Items folder. When users fail to empty the Deleted Items folder, deleted email continues contributing to gargantuan mailbox sizes. Regularly empty the Deleted Items folder.

Better yet, configure Outlook to automatically empty Deleted Items when exiting the email application. To do so, click Tools, select Options, click the Other tab, select Empty The Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting, and click OK.

3: Archive mail

Microsoft set default mailbox quotas at two gigabytes in Exchange 2007, which is actually larger than prior platforms. That said, I regularly encounter clients whose Outlook.PST files or Exchange mailboxes exceed five and even six gigabytes. That's a recipe for reduced performance, if not data corruption and disaster (lost information).

Outlook performs optimally when using smaller information stores. Regularly archive mail by clicking File and selecting Archive. Or configure auto-archiving by clicking Tools, selecting Options, clicking the Other tab, and clicking the AutoArchive button to configure appropriate settings. This will create separate, standalone archive files and maintain reasonably sized mailboxes.

4: Minimize add-ins

Incompatibilities introduced by third-party search tools, security applications, and other software frequently cause trouble within Outlook. Worse, these add-ins are often difficult to track down and isolate as the cause of intermittent Outlook errors. Minimize the use of third-party add-ins to encourage better Outlook performance. To manage your add-ins, choose Options from the Tools menu, click the Other tab, click Advanced Options, and then click Add-In Manager. In Outlook 2007, click Tools, select Trust Center, and highlight Add-ins.

5: Avoid large attachments

Whenever large attachments are sent via email, there's a risk that the recipient's email server (or even the sender's server) will refuse to process the message. Messages with attachments larger than five megabytes are often discarded by many email servers. Avoid including attachments, especially those larger than three megabytes. Remember, when messages with attachments are sent, the attached files remain within the Sent Items folder, thereby contributing to larger database stores. Send too many file attachments, and the Sent Items folder alone can quickly grow to an unwieldy size.

6: Abandon stationery

Stationery, or the pretty templates Microsoft includes within Outlook to make messages appear more attractive, only complicates an already complex communications medium. Simplify the process be removing unnecessary graphic elements, which place a processing load upon recipients as well (unless they use text-based email readers, in which case they'll never even see your stationery anyway).

7: Eliminate third-party spam software

I've seen Outlook become so corrupted by third-party spam applications that the only solution was to uninstall the third-party email filtering software, uninstall Microsoft Office, and reinstall the Microsoft suite. Save yourself the hassle. Leverage Microsoft Exchange and Outlook's built-in junk mail filtering tools or turn to a trusted external spam solution, such as that offered by Postini.

8: Perform mailbox maintenance

Occasionally, Outlook's storage file becomes corrupt. Microsoft includes the Inbox Repair Tool with each copy of Outlook. The utility analyzes the mailbox storage file for errors. Scan.pst and Scan.ost (for Personal Folder files and Offline Folder files, respectively) can identify and correct issues with data and directory structures, headers and lost folders, and lost items. Users should consider running the file monthly, if for no other reason than it offers the option of creating a backup file as part of the repair process.

9: Trim/forward multiple accounts

Most users process just one or two email accounts within Microsoft Outlook. Others manage eight to 10 separate email accounts. That means that every time Outlook performs a send/receive operation (and many users configure their machines to perform this operation once a minute), Outlook must initiate and complete communications with 20 servers (10 outgoing servers and 10 incoming servers for each user account). That's a lot of network traffic, especially if most of the email accounts aren't necessary.

Reconsider how many email accounts are really required. If several legacy email accounts are still set up in Outlook but are no longer used, remove them. Choose E-Mail Accounts from the Tools menu, select View Or Change Existing E-mail Accounts, click Next, and then select and remove the obsolete account. In Outlook 2007, click Tools, select Account Settings, highlight the unnecessary account, and click the Remove button.

Alternatively, if multiple email accounts are required, consider whether there's an opportunity to consolidate several using Gmail. Users can create free Gmail accounts and forward several email accounts to a single holding account. For example, if a user receives email for info@ companyname.com, support@ companyname.com, serverstatus@ companyname.com, sales@ companyname.com, customerservice@companyname.com and similar addresses for the same domain, all those separate email accounts could be consolidated by pointing them to a single email address (such as administrative@companyname.com).

10: Simplify signatures

Logos, badges, business cards, and other fancy graphics are unnecessary within email messages. They may display improperly within recipient's email clients, or they may not display at all. Worse, graphical signatures lead to unnecessarily bloated email message sizes.

Stick to fundamentals. Configure Outlook to paste your name, title, company name, and contact information within every message. (Select Tools, choose Options, click the Mail Format tab, and click the Signatures button to access signature settings.) Just do so using simple text. Such contact information is critical and should accompany each email message you send (whether you're creating a new message or responding to another). But don't clutter messages, mailboxes, and server queues with unnecessary graphics and other superfluous elements.

 

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10 ways to recover a corrupted Excel workbook

• Author: Susan Harkins

1: Let Excel try

If Excel's automatic recovery mode fails, there's a manual feature for recovering a corrupted workbook:

1. Choose Open from the File menu. In Excel 2007, click the Office button and select Open.
2. Using the Look In control, locate and specify the corrupted workbook.
3. From the Open button's dropdown list, shown in Figure A, choose Open And Repair.
4. If this is your first attempt to manually recover the workbook, click Repair in the resulting dialog box, shown in Figure B.

Figure A

Attempt to manually recover a corrupted workbook.

Figure B

You can repair a workbook or extract the data from a corrupted workbook.

If you're lucky, Excel will repair the file. However, this feature recovers files when something goes wrong with Excel, so it won't recover every corrupted file. Once you've made every attempt to recovery the file, you might have to make do with recovering just the data. When that's the case, click Extract Data in step 4.

2: If the corruption occurs while the workbook is open

If corruption occurs while the workbook is open, do not save the workbook. You'll just save whatever corrupted the workbook along with the most recent changes. Instead, revert to the last saved version. Doing so, without saving first should discard the corrupted component. You'll possibly lose data, but often, you can rebuild quickly enough (a good reason to save your work often).

To revert to the last saved version, do the following:

1. Choose Open from the File menu. In Excel 2007, click the Office button and select Open.
2. Using the Look In control, locate and specify the corrupted workbook.
3. Click Open.

You're really just reopening the workbook — there's nothing special going on.

3: Disable automatic calculation

If Excel fails to open the file on its own or via the Open And Repair option, try setting the calculation method to manual and try again. To reset the calculation setting:

1. Open a new blank workbook.
2. From the Tools menu, choose Options and click the Calculation tab. In Excel 2007, click the Office button, click Excel Options, and select Formulas in the panel to the left.
3. In the Calculation section (Calculation Options in Excel 2007), click Manual.
4. Click OK.

Then, try to open the corrupted workbook. Sometimes Excel can open a corrupted workbook if it doesn't have to recalculate.

4: Try Microsoft Office Tools

If Excel can't open the corrupted workbook, give Microsoft Office Tools a whirl:

1. From the Start menu, choose All Programs (in Windows XP).
2. Select Microsoft Office.
3. Choose Microsoft Office Tools.
4. Select Microsoft Office Application Recovery.
5. In the resulting dialog box, shown in Figure C, choose Microsoft Office Excel.
6. Click Recover Application. The process could take a few minutes.
7. Respond to the Send Report To Microsoft prompt.

Figure C

Office Tools might recover a corrupted workbook.

The recovery tool will close Excel and then restart it, displaying a list of recovered workbooks (if any). If you're lucky, your corrupted workbook will be in the list. Simply open it and count your blessing.

5: Move the file

Sometimes, a corrupted workbook isn't really corrupted in the traditional sense. It just isn't accessible as usual; networks and servers often mask errors as corrupted files. If you encounter a seemingly corrupted workbook that Excel can't repair, move the corrupted file to another folder, drive, or server.

6: Let the competition try

Some people claim extraordinarily good results using OpenOffice Suite, a free open source alternative to Microsoft Office. This suite's Excel counterpart, Calc, should open a corrupted Excel file. Unfortunately, it means a lengthy download, but if it works, it's well worth the effort.

7: Open the corrupted workbook in WordPad or Word

If you can't repair the workbook, try opening it in WordPad. If it works, WordPad will convert everything to text — but you'll be one step closer to recovering important data. Unfortunately, this method won't recover formulas. On the other hand, unlike many other data recovery methods, WordPad will recover your VBA procedures (macros). Simply search recovered text for Sub and Function to find them.

You might also be able to open the corrupted .xls file in Word, but the results will be limited. For this method to work, you must install the Microsoft Office Excel converter. And unlike WordPad, Word won't recover your procedures.

8: Use external references

Sometimes, you can recover data by referring to the actual cells in a corrupted workbook. You won't recover formulas, formats, charts, macros, and so on, but recovering the data is better than recovering nothing. To recover data by referencing the corrupt workbook, do the following:

1. Open a new workbook and enter into cell A1 a formula in the following form to reference A1 in the corrupted workbook: nameofcorruptedworkbook!A1. (You don't need to include .xls in the filename.)
2. Press Enter.
3. If the corrupted workbook isn't in the same folder, Excel will display the Update Values: nameofcorruptedworkbook dialog box. Use the Look In control to locate the corrupted file. Select the file and click OK.
4. If the Select Sheet dialog box appears, as shown in Figure D, select the appropriate sheet and click OK. Excel will display the value in cell A1 of the corrupted workbook.
5. Select cell A1 and drag it across as many columns as needed to accommodate the data in the corrupted file. If Excel displays the Update Values: nameofcorruptedworkbook dialog box, select the corrupted file and click OK.
6. Repeat step 5, copying row A down as many rows as necessary to accommodate the data in the corrupted file.
7. Select the data and choose Copy from the Edit menu.
8. Select Paste Special from the Edit menu and choose Values, as shown in Figure E.
9. Click OK.

Figure D

If the corrupted file has multiple sheets, specify a sheet.

Figure E

Replace the referencing formulas with data.

9: Try SYLK format to recover data

Microsoft recommends using the SYLK format to filter out corrupted elements, especially if the corruption is printer related. You must be able to open the corrupted workbook for the following to work:

1. From the File menu, choose Save As. In Excel 2007, click the Office button.
2. From the Save As Type control, choose SYLK(Symbolic Link) (*.slk), as shown in Figure F.
3. Give the active sheet a descriptive name, such as corruptedworkbooknameSheet1. If the workbook has only one sheet, this step is unnecessary.
4. Click Save.
5. If the workbook has multiple sheets, Excel will ask you if you want to continue because the selected format doesn't support multiple sheets. Click OK.
6. If Excel prompts you with a warning that the workbook might contain features that aren't compatible with the SYLK format, click Yes.

Figure F

Save each sheet using the SYLK format.

It's important to know that the SYLK format saves only the active sheet. However, you won't notice that the format has stripped all of the pages but the active one until you close and reopen the .slk file. To recover data from all the sheets, you must reopen the corrupted workbook and save each sheet individually. That's why step 3 instructs you to give the sheet a descriptive name. You'll find those names helpful when reconstructing the multiple-sheet workbook.

After saving all the sheets to the SYLK format, open one of the .slk files and rename it using the .xls format. Be careful not to use the corrupted workbook's name. Once you've reconstructed the workbook, you can discard the corrupted file or rename it, freeing up the original name. Don't replace it until you're sure you've recovered as much data as possible. Then, reconstruct the workbook by importing or copying data from the .slk files. It's a tedious process, but worth the effort if nothing else works. This method saves values resulting from formulas, but not the formulas themselves.

10: Recover macros

If you can recover data but not macros via one of the previous tips, you can still save macros — at least sometimes. To try, do the following:

1. Open Excel, but don't open the corrupted workbook.
2. Set the calculation mode to Manual (see #3).
3. Choose Macro from the Tools menu, select Security, and choose the High option. In Excel 2007, click the Office button, click Excel Options, and choose Trust Center in the left panel. Then, click the Trust Center Settings button, select Macro Settings in the left panel, select Disable All Macros Without Notification in the Macro Settings section, and click OK twice.
4. Open the corrupted workbook. If Excel opens the workbook, you'll see a notice that the macros are disabled. If Excel shuts down, this method won't work.
5. Press [Alt]+[F11] to open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE).
6. Using the Project Explorer (press [Ctrl]+R), right-click a module, and choose Export File.
7. Enter a name and folder for the module.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 as many times as necessary to export all the modules.
9. Close the VBE and exit Excel.
10. Open a new blank workbook (or the newly constructed workbook that contains recovered data from the corrupted workbook) and import the modules.

 

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