Meteor Monitor:
ThoughtShare appoints new Vice-President, Product Management
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Another veteran software manager has come aboard at ThoughtShare
Communications to join the company's management team, just as the company
begins the job of marketing its commercial software applications.
Earl van As has more than a decade under his belt in software management
positions that included Technical Support Manager, Product Manager and
Director of Marketing for the companies that invented and developed a major
contact-management software program. "It's Earl's job to be a liaison
between customers and our programmers," says ThoughtShare president Fred
Fabro.
In 1995, Earl began working for Multiactive Software Inc., a C$25 million,
provider of customer relationship management and e-commerce software, such
as Maximizer, ecBuilder and Entice. He ran the company's marketing
organization and was heavily involved in product management, advertising,
events, Web marketing and other marketing-related work. His team grew from
five to 15 personnel within two years, and contributed to a 68% increase in
revenues during his first year as marketing director.
"I have some ideas on what we need to be doing," he says. He's currently
in Las Vegas at ThoughtShare's COMDEX 2000 booth, which is demonstrating
PlanBee and early versions of two commercial bZone products, bSeeker and
bViewer. "ThoughtShare has done a great job in the initial release of its
products, but we need to ensure that we have clear communication channels
established so that we can get feedback from our customers back to our
programmers. That's the way to ensure the products have the features that
will serve them and the others like them. A lot of companies fail to keep
on top of what customers want, and they begin losing market share. It's my
job to make sure that ThoughtShare establishes a leadership position in
our chosen markets."
Earl says that a key component of this is to talk to prospects, which
include people intrigued with the products, but also those who have decided
not to use them. "It's always important to talk to prospects, to find out
why they decided to move on or why they're just looking. We need to know
why, for instance, a regional sales manager is using PlanBee in their
day-to-day work, and what things they need to make it more useful to them.
That helps direct our marketing, and it helps direct our program
development."
He also says that he'll be looking at improving the company's marketing to
important niche markets within the larger target market of knowledge
management. "Suppose we decided we would target real estate people -- I'm
not saying that's what we've decided to do; it's too early for that -- but
if we did, that would mean developing a direct mail campaign to direct them
to our Web site, and then having everything they encounter there
personalized for them, specific buzPAKs and that sort of thing, because you
have to see our products in operation to really get excited about them."
And, he says, he's "considering the possibility of having focus groups work
with the products -- similar to the kind of thing that was done during beta
testing, but more intensive -- and watching where things work really well
and where they are puzzled about some aspect, then talk about it with them
and get back to program development with what I call 'use-case reports'.
They really help programmers to improve an existing product, or come up
with new ones."
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Peter Morgan, Managing Editor, Meteor Monitor |
