Hi Konehead:
re: value of Microsoft as a customers. "it's probably had a major impact on CLFY- either it saved their ship or distracted them immensely."
Somewhere in middle. Of course, the majority/distraction was done a couple of years ago, so we are well past the risk period. We put our very best people on it, MS put some great people on it, and it was very successful. It has been a major reference for us, but certainly not the only wildly referenceable customer. See our recent ads featuring ADP and Toyota.
Anyone who makes MS successful deserves the resulting praise and attention (sorry for the self adulation). If SEBL does in fact win this deal and in fact makes them happy, they will be deserving. If not, it shows a pretty wide crack in the armor.
However, VNTV investors, also contemplate this: this would be the second consecutive big loss at MS for VNTV. It must hurt. I"m always interested in how these losses are spun internally (of course, having seen them myself here at CLFY). Was interested to hear the story that the internal VNTV spin to losing the initial deal to us was that MS was worried about working with a vendor (VNTV) that already had Novell as a customer. Wow: this one shows a lot of imagination. Can you hear the MS decision-makers giving VNTV the news: "Yeah, we really thought that your product was better, but we decided to go with an inferior product because you also sell to one of our competitors. So what if it puts our careers in jeopardy. Have a nice day". Give me a break. Almost as good as the price cutting one I heard from SCOP; insiders know that the opposite was true.
Sorry to bring up so much history, but it is relevant to the current discussions.
God, if this is not the tornado, I gonna invest in an anchor.
Good fortune to all investors. |
