[PSNUG.org News] promoting GW - why should you care?

[Brandon Fouts]

From: "Rodney Bliss" <rbliss at msn.com>

Subject: RE: [ngw] Re: GW Market Share

I really depends on how you see your role: customer or partner.  (BTW, I'm
not on Novell's payroll and never have been.)

*Partners:* Many, many people on this list fit the classic definition of
partner. We make money from GroupWise. Some manufacture and market
complementary products, some of us are consultants that get paid to help
people install and use the product. As a migration consultant, the more
people move to GroupWise, the more jobs I get. I definitely have a stake in
how well GW does. It could be said that in the past partners have done the
bulk of GW marketing. GroupWise Advisor magazine was started not because of
what Novell was doing, but because the editor saw what a vibrant and
passionate partner community existed. Now that Novell is taking a more
active role in promoting GroupWise, the partner community needs to step up
and make sure that the marketing and evangelism efforts have the most impact
possible.

*Customers:* If GW were like laundry soap, ... No matter how much you like
Tide detergent, you have not a whit of responsibility to help promote it. If
Tide stops meeting your needs, you'll easily switch to some other brand and
probably not even notice the difference.

But email is not like soap. It's not like most consumer commodities. It gets
used BY FAR more than any other business application. GroupWise users have
tips, tricks, tweaks, etc that help them to get their job done better. The
ones I might use are different than the ones you might use. But, I have
never seen an experienced GW user who was willing to dump the client. Most
have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Microsoft Exchange world.

(Oh, yeah, I was on the payroll for Microsoft for 9 years, and their
customers DO NOT love them nearly as much as GW customers love GW.)

So, if you are one of the customers who love GW, you have a vested interest
in making sure it remains a viable product. The obituary for GroupWise has
been written at least twice that I know of. It's not inevitable that GW will
stick around. I worked for WordPerfect for 5 years and while I got out 6
months before Novell bought them, I watched a product that people LOVED
wither and die. The same CAN happen to GroupWise. There are a few hundred
people working for Novell responsible for GroupWise. There are a few
thousand partners. There are millions of users. In today's
viral-marketing/Internet environment numbers matter. One of the biggest
reasons companies are pressured to move off of GW is the misperception that
GW is dead – no one is using it – Novell doesn't care about it. Sure Novell
can (and should) work to change that perception. But, the people who depend
on GW everyday to get their jobs done have some responsibility too.

Here in Washington state, Ron Paul won over 20% of the vote. His entire
campaign is built around word-of-mouth marketing mostly over the Internet.
That type of viral marketing works.

Richard understands the power that the GW community holds. I think it's **we
** who don't understand it. ... if the GW community fails get excited about
promoting GW, don't be surprised when analysts, reporters or your company
executives also fail to get excited. After all, if the people using it NOW
aren't fired up about it, what makes you think people evaluating it will be?

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