It's Not About the Baseball!

How many marketing people have you heard saying that their product is the best thing since sliced bread, and it's excellence will awe you and make your life perfect?

I'd like to equate this to my local minor league baseball team the "Tri-City Valley Cats".  For years, the franchise has limped along, barely keeping afloat, and I have not heard much about them.  When I did hear things, it was usually a commercial saying how great they are and everyone should come out and watch them play.  They were a mediocre team, and I never felt particuarly motivated to go.

But, something has changed in the past few months.  It appears they are wizening up.  They hired a new marketing manager, and he has taken a completely different approach.  Instead of touting the traditional "party line" and talking about how great the team is, his approach goes something like this:

"You have to come out and see our team, because our announcers will leave you in stitches all night long, every wednesday is family fun night, $2 admission, we have brand new bathroom facilities, our parking is great, we hired new management for all the refreshments, improved service! -- After all, we all know the truth, no one really cares about Minor League Baseball"

This got me thinking about how our organization, NimbleUser has been looking at things since last year when we changed our name and our focus.  What makes a great baseball game?  No hassle parking, funny announcers, good food, raucous crowd, clean restrooms, no lines & fun.  Honestly I don't care much about the teams and how well they do.  I go to a baseball game to have a good time.  Their new marketing strategy is catering to this desire. 

To me, this sends signals that in our own industry, to a degree this is also true.  Sure, a good project beigns with good software, but what about the experience?  As I go through more and more I'm realizing that the experience is truly the crux that makes for a successful project.  How is the project managed, how easy is it to get in touch with your implementors, how is scope managed, do you feel like you are being treated fairly and with honesty, how are your staff being trained?

As a company, this is our focus.  We want to provide you with the best experience possible going through an IT project.  We have staffed up with professionals at every stage of the game, from the first phone call through the project close meeting and beyond, our staff are here to provide that great experience.

I'm not advocating that great service can make up for poor applications, what I AM saying is that great service can make a good application great, or a great application outstanding.  Properly implementing any application, good or bad, will increase ROI many times over from a badly implemented one.  And, as we strive for excellence in every facet of our business, our suite of applications is measured to the same high standards.

So what can you take away from this?  While software features and functionality are important, when you are in the market for software or an IT project, look at the project holistically - consider every aspect beyond the software itself.  It's those other (often intangible things) that will make for a project success or failure.