I appologize ahead of time if it is inappropriate to continue to offer feedback to Jeff Whatcott in this forum. I wanted to make a point while Jeff has his ear to the ground, then I will do my best to stay off line <G>. I once worked for a prestigious engineering firm. In the late eighties, a whole new market developed, environmental engineering. The environmental department grew quickly and became the leading revenue generator for the entire company. However, special new expense costs were associated with the environmental engineering. They were foreign to the rest of the company and the manager's, in their wisdom, created a special surcharge for their CLIENTS. They explicitly stated on their invoices that the client was required to pay 1.5% of the labor as an environmental fee. Within the company, everyone was happy. It solved the problem among the INTERNAL profit centers. It was a solution created to solve an internal problem. However (and this is the point of this email), it totally backfired. Our best clients, our bread and butter clients absolutely refused to pay the fee. To the shock of the managers, the clients were ready to walk, and walk quickly. The amount was not the issue. The clients perceived that the costs were a cost of doing business for the engineering firm and that it was inappropriate for them to pay it as a surcharge. Nothing changed the client's preceptions. I agree with several of the CTO's comments in this forum, that Macromedia must create sufficient revenue to expand their products and their market. Without success, CF will die. But please stay sensitive to cost perceptions in the market and aware of internal issues vs true value offered to the client. IMO, there are two things that will stop CF dead in its tracks: 1) If we (developers who sell CF to clients who pay for CF development) cannot manage our client's perceptions of justified server costs, CF is dead. This is independent of ANY justification Macromedia has with regards to their internal revenue generating schemes. The client's perception is king, reality. As strange as it seems, clients will walk over a small server fee, regardless of how much they are paying for development. It's weird, but it's real. 2) The CF server is the engine. Everything else is hooked to the engine. Macromedia must satisfy the needs of hosts offering shared hosting, CF developers, and the bill-paying client when it comes to the server. ALL parties' needs must be satisfied. This is the challenge, because there are so many sensitive issues around the server. The rest of the product issues will take care of themselves over time. In summary, we need to go further than listening to developers. We need to be listening very carefully to the perceptions of the bill paying client. They will make the final choice and decision. Thanks. I'll stay offline now. Back to coding and real work... -- Eric Root ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
