How will someone use this tool?
Strout: There are a couple of different scenarios. One is actually putting in a review. The ability for a member that has gone through a project to add that -- whether it's an implementation, upgrade or turning on new feature functions. Whatever. Edge allows them to go in to rate the company as well as an individual consultant. If that vendor isn't in the database, it allows them to add that person and company to the database. It is designed so that a company can't necessarily opt out: Everybody gets to rate.
The second scenario is when a customer or member might be looking for augmentation of their skills sets to help them with a project. So being able to go in and identify who has the skills necessary for their individual project, whether it's an industry-specific solution, like media. [They can see] who has those skills? And from that: who has highest rating? And then be able to read through and understand what other people have said about other projects, and then also be able to link out and ask for more information on the submitter or that review.
And the third one is our partners, the vendors, being able to go in and understand how they rank amongst their competitors -- how they can use that in the marketing of their skill set. For example, the fact that they've got an A rating from 50 different customers and on 50 different projects -- that's a huge, huge thing to say. You know, [because] very few projects go so exorbitantly well that everybody comes out OK.
Does Edge allow members to look at how much each Edge user paid these consultants?
Strout: No. Actually we've kind of stayed away from that at the moment. There's a slippery slope there. We don't want to get into the area of putting the financials out there or even ballparks. We might do things similar to that in the future, but right at the moment the intent is to give people really good information and maybe those people are worth spending extra dollars for because you have actually to use less time. Because, when looking at "rate per hour," in most cases, that's a really bad determinant of whether a project is going to be successful.
What's been the ASUG reaction so far?
Strout: We turned it on in beta in a very limited scope back in January, and we have 400 companies rated already from people who have gone through projects and wanted to get out there and rate their vendors. It's been a positive experience so far.
Do you have any goals on ASUG member use or how many companies in the SAP ecosystem you want rated?
Strout: I don't have those particular types of goals to identify its success. [What matters] to me is if it's actually helped a business do their business better, and gotten a better deal because they've gotten a better vendor. I don't know how to rate that yet. I'd love to have 80 percent of the ecosystem in there at some point and time.
What do those consultants and companies who are being rated think?
Strout: I've had two different responses: One has been, "Oh crap. I don't want you to have my best consultants' [names] out there because then everyone will know who to go and poach." And my retort is: "Take care of them, and they'll take care of you." That's a management issue not a technology issue.
The other response has been very positive and understanding in how they can do better and get a really good feedback. Especially small and midsize companies who don't have a good, true feedback system within their own companies and don't have customer service surveys that really address this, especially the smaller guys. This gives them a tool to actually see how well they fare against the bigger guys. And it gives them a marketing advantage [in that they can] take a look at Edge and they can go see how they rate relative to everybody else.
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