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Does Your Vendor Issue Gag Orders?
Presto Vivace writes to tell us that CIO has an interesting article about customer "gag orders" that some ERP vendors are trying to impose contractually. "The effect: customers will be prevented from working with peers and others in the software company's "ecosystem" to help with technical issues or compare pricing options. 'In addition,' Wang adds, 'the customer now lacks the proper checks and balances in pressuring a vendor to deliver on promised capabilities or address severe security issues, and cannot go to the media as a last resort, if needed.'" What other questionable practices (and potential solutions) have others had to work with?
Why would any major company agree to such arrangements?
Of course such insane arrangements with respect to investments lead to a portion of the financial meltdown.
Think Deeply.
And they wonder why people resort to piracy?
In all seriousness, trying to force the consumer to do anything to save your business will ultimately drive them away. If you want to safeguard your business, stop making a poor product, work with your customers to fix issues, give decent support, and stop trying to legally tie their hands behind their backs.
This is akin to legal DRM. All it does to legitimate customers is push them away; software piracy seems like the only recourse. Companies have to learn that this is the kind of stuff that we won't stand for if it is ever to change.
-SaNo
It is not your customer's responsibility to make your business model work. If you can't get business the way you're doing things, then don't do things that way.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
If you're a CIO, and you sign something like this, you should lose your job.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth