I will be visiting Europe next month. I would like to know what all would you like to discuss about when I come and see you.
This will help me get prepared for the trip and also will set the expectations straight. This is a unique opportunity for me to meet the users of vtiger and I would like to make the full use of it.
My agenda for the trip is to assure and ensure people that the vtiger team is a set of honest human beings who are not here to make a quick buck. These are people who are working on vtiger full-time. The team understands that ppl depend on us for business and TRUST is the sole foundation, so we cannot let them down.
I think many of you would be waiting to know if vtiger can be used for mass deployment and will vtiger run away with the money once we get it. That, is NOT the case.
Some of you would prefer to buy Seibel/Oracle/PeopleSoft/Microsoft CRM for their long innings in the market. You might feel that these guys know what they are doing and if they have been doing something for so long then they must be knowing what they are doing and to add to it, they are successful in that ; so, probably the price they quote is just a reflection of the complexity/quality of the software. OR, you feel that Sugar has made so much publicity so it must be good, plus these guys have VCs who are putting in the money so they are a safe bet.
Well, you are entitled to that opinion. All the above mentioned products are good and sturdy.
My only say is this – Bcos someone has a long innings and has been successful does not mean that the prices charged are correct and also does not mean that they are going to stick around for a long time. Heck, Seibel did not, PeopleSoft did not, Microsoft will not! Someone, somewhere is always a competition then why not that competitor be vtiger? Believe me, it is not that expensive as these guys charge for. They are trapped in a ever-deeping vortex of price. They cannot reduce the price as they are paying their employees in dollars. They will have to shell out that much amount of money. The stock-market expectations have to be met else they will lose customers. For making the stock-market work, they have to have these high prices. vtiger does not have any such compunction.
Difficult to understand logic?
Bcos someone has shouted themselves hoarse and has spent a ton of money on marketing does not mean that they are the only guys who can do the particular act. Bcos someone is funded, does not mean that they are profitable or sustainable.
vtiger has spent $0 on marketing and we have AdventNet funding us initially. Now, we make money from advertising and support packages plus sponsoring plus services. AND,we are OPEN SOURCE without STRINGS. Whatever we do is for all to see. We do not have a closed and an open source version. With vtigercrm5, we have provided an enterprise-grade product. The UI was developer-like earlier but we have changed it to the best in business now- open source or closed source.
vtiger has been in existence for the last 2 years now and we have achieved more than 0.5 million downloads at the least.
We can be trusted. WE WILL DELIVER!
