Axosoft has been developing software for software development for four years now. During that time, we have received numerous emails from clients telling us how OnTime has saved or re-energized their projects, how much they love the UI and the ability to track their teams' efforts and progress. For the most part, though, these emails have been informal and they've served as internal motivation.
When we recently brought in Angelo Coppola to manage our marketing efforts, he started asking a lot of questions about our customers that we couldn't answer. He understood OnTime's features, that it had won many awards, and the various technical attributes that make OnTime such a great product. But, he wanted to know how our customers were benefiting from using it...and there's a big difference between a feature and a benefit.
For example, we learned from one client that they estimate the sales of one of their products doubled as a direct result of using OnTime to get development efforts on track. Well, "doubling the sales of your product" isn't an official OnTime feature, but for this company, it certainly was one of the benfits.
For a business at our growth stage, the time had obviously come to start making an extra effort to engage with customers. They are the real experts, and they can provide us with insights about our product that extend well beyond our four walls. Angelo wanted to engage in a virtual conversation with about 20 people who were most interested in talking about their OnTime experience. He wanted to learn what they thought about OnTime, Axosoft, the user experience, and what using OnTime really meant to them.
To do this, we narrowed down our customer list from about 5,000 clients to 1,200, based on certain "interesting" criteria. Then, we divided the 1,200 into six groups of 200 who he planned to send emails to one group at a time, requesting participation in a survey that would be limited to the first 20 respondents. That way we could refine the survey with each attempt, and based on a 1-2% participation rate, we'd end up with our twenty conversations.
We sent out the email to the first group. Wow! What a response! We shut down the survey after just 16 hours. We hadn't even made it through the "B's" in our client list. Over the next several days we analyzed our information. This was one-on-one information about real people using our product in the real world, and I am overwhelmed by what our customers have to say. Here are a few comments:
"The previous solution was an open source product that was brought in by a former manager. It cost us a lot more in time to maintain and enhance than it was worth, which is why I was glad to make the switch to OnTime."
• Hal G Floyd II, Vice President - Development, Abbey Group Consultants
Software - ISV | USA
"We needed a tool that was more directed toward software development than Microsoft Project."
• Christian Hamel, IT Development Manager, Adonis Technologies
Software - ISV | Canada
"With OnTime nothing is left behind. It's reports give me an easy way of showing that to our management."
• Ronald Schutte, Solutions Architect / Sr. Developer, Agens
Employment Services | The Netherlands
"Within a few days we had the team using it. It is easy to use and can adapt the workflow to work the way we run our projects. Customer service and developers all use the system with a common understanding of the process."
• Jim Arbuthnot, Development Manager, AssistMed
Healthcare & Social Assistance | USA, Canada
"In every team meeting we can see the advantages of using OnTime. We start with a short look at the OnTime database, and then everyone makes a statement about his or her activities. The average time we work on defects was cut down noticeably."
• Jan Dethlefs, Project Manager, APM Software GmbH
Software - ISV | Germany
This effort has not only provided us with a look at OnTime's benefits, but it has added a new level of meaning to the work we do. There is a little bit of OnTime in thousands of projects out there, and that's a big responsibility for us to keep giving OnTime our all -- talk about motivation!
In many ways, the information we gathered through the survey and follow-ups is far more important to our potential clients than anything we have to say about the product ourselves. It tells them, "Yes, this product does what it's supposed to, and it will probably do even more than you expect...it did for us."
We've posted several more comments and even a few case studies on the web site, check them out. Oh, and when you see that all of the companies quoted and examined start with the letters 'A' or 'B,' you'll know why...
One more thing...be sure to look for Angelo's blog soon if you're interested in the challenges and (hopefully) triumphs of ISV marketing.