Better Sales and Support Organization

[akiran]

Admin's note: This post contains gross factual errors. Read on for a correction
I have been waiting for response to my multiple email regarding the training and purchase of SmartGWT Power or EE versions. It seems like the Sales organization within your organization is quite broken. There is no response on my request for training and purchase of the license for almost 2 weeks (and still waiting). Very few people on the forum (based on what I read) actually know how to use your powerful features - Visual Builder, Messaging, Batch mode operations, Security etc.
Without adequate information, there is no way, one will buy online using a credit card.

It should be clearly stated if your organization is going for bulk licenses or can support individuals and small businesses or at least redirect them to use the LGPL licenses instead but given the rich feature set of the product, there maybe many small organizations like ours that would like to put in the extra money in places where it matters most.

Secondly, most queries from individuals in the forums are replied by the "Administrator" buy pasting the same hyperlink with a "go-figure-it-out-yourself" attitude. At times it appears to be quite terse and rude. As part of better sales organization, its a request to invest in clean and concise documentation and a humble attitude.

Just wishing, since you asked ;)

[Isomorphic]

The first email we have from your email address is only 5 days ago. You received an in-depth response 3 hours later.

You were then contacted 3 days later with further training information and told that we were still trying to figure out the availability of our trainers (which is very complex given the demand).

In the meantime you had a forums question answered as well. At no point did you have any unanswered questions except trainer availability.

So this claim of "no response .. for almost 2 weeks" is absolutely 100% false.

We don't know what your intent is in posting such extremely misleading information, but please don't do so again.

As far as support, links are posted rather than copying and pasting the documentation into the forums because the live documentation is deeply interlinked and is likely to answer follow-up questions. Copying and pasting documentation also has the drawback that it could go stale. This is simply the most effective process.

[akiran]

I stand corrected on the "2 week" timeline. My frustration in not making significant progress on my own caught up. My intention is to purchase and use your libraries effectively.

[SDorogin]

Guys, you really don't bother you much to answer all questions.
Answering with links to docs is luxury,
almost a half of questions you just ignore.
I understand such comments are unpleasant, but I can understand that guy.

If you are really concerned about user support then think about something else then a standard forum. Some kind of Q&A site (http://osqa.net) or more advanced forums (like http://getsatisfaction.com/).
But of cause your attidute to users is more important than technical form.

The first email we have from your email address is only 5 days ago. You received an in-depth response 3 hours later.

You were then contacted 3 days later with further training information and told that we were still trying to figure out the availability of our trainers (which is very complex given the demand).

In the meantime you had a forums question answered as well. At no point did you have any unanswered questions except trainer availability.

So this claim of "no response .. for almost 2 weeks" is absolutely 100% false.

We don't know what your intent is in posting such extremely misleading information, but please don't do so again.

As far as support, links are posted rather than copying and pasting the documentation into the forums because the live documentation is deeply interlinked and is likely to answer follow-up questions. Copying and pasting documentation also has the drawback that it could go stale. This is simply the most effective process.

[Isomorphic]

Either purchase commercial support or understand that you are relying on fellow community members for individual support, not Isomorphic.

It's fairly obvious which posters have support and they receive quick and complete responses, which they often compliment. Paid support receives very good reviews.

If you are hoping Isomorphic is going to respond to questions when you do not have support, are not using functionality in the commercial editions, and are not contributing in any way, that is very unlikely. We can better serve the community as a whole by improving the product and documentation than by answering your individual questions.

[SDorogin]

It's clear that you can't provide support for free to everybody.
But it's unclear that with paid support there'll be better. It would, I don't know. But I believe not everyone buy support right after they discover your framework. I guess they try to understand it first, learn, try to make some prototypes etc.
And inspite of pretty good documentation some questions raise. People ask them in the forum. And what? And nothing (not always, but often). Silence.
This doesn't encourage much to buy support. It also not obviosly that what I get for paid support? The same forum but more favourable attitude or what?

As for community, unfortunetly community here is not very large. And in fact this's your forum. Frankly speaking I didn't expect that somebody else Isomorphic answers to my questions.

[Isomorphic]

Paid support is conducted on the forums so that everyone benefits from the answers, although there is also the ability to file confidential issues at the Enterprise level and above. Again, if you care to review what paid support looks like, it's pretty obvious who has it on the forums, and it's pretty obvious that it's a highly effective service.

The support offerings are described right here. This is linked from right next to where you type in your post.

Again, we do often answer questions for people evaluating functionality of the commercial editions, even if they do not have support. Answering questions for free for other people is the best way to *discourage* a purchase of support (we have data that confirms this, it is not a speculation).

Finally, people answer each other's questions routinely, and someone even chimed in on one your threads. Review your posts against the advice in the FAQ for how to have the best chance of receiving a response.

[davidasa88@gmail.com]

I am looking for a SmartClient 8.0 developer for a 1 or 2 page application to start with.

Can someone please tell me how to find one?

David

www.RescueMissionForChildren.org

davidasa88@gmail.com