Just a quick note to say that this post touches on two or three things
that I want to respond to in some detail, but will be unable to until
after the conference call this evening (shameless plug
http://biz.yahoo.com/cc/1/38591.html) and I wanted to drop this onto the
list before it became buried too deep in the thread.
A little foreshadowing. I want to respond to rwi/client code (we suck,
or in latin wea culpa), the state of services at launch and the process
of rolling out new services.
Todd, great post.
Regards
Todd Jagger wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Pardon me for inserting this extrapolated tangent into this thread,
> however Rob's statements I think deserve some (more) discussion here as
> they pertain not only to the DNS service but other Tucows products as well.
>
> Let me preface by saying each of us has a different business model,
> needs, goals, customers, etc. What may be critical to one may be
> unimportant, or even undesired, by another, and vice versa. Tucows
> can't be everything to everybody and they have a significant challenge
> in trying to tailor their offerings and services to a vastly diverse
> customer base. While any endeavor has room for improvement I think
> overall Tucows has done an exceptional job and, above all, stayed
> consistent with high standards of ethics and professionalism. In
> addition they overall seem sincerely interested in what we want.
> Sometimes they also appear to ignore what we tell them, but at least
> they're listening. ;-)
>
> Whether or not Tucows offers X service or Y product is not the topic
> here. Tucows is going to offer the products and services they
> determine; that is their prerogative, just as ours is whether or not to
> resell that service or product, or to do business with Tucows at all.
>
> What concerns me is the development these products are given and the
> level at which they are offered. It seems in each case we're given
> something one or two notches shy of a kick-ass product, and that
> directly impacts our abilities to sell them to our customers.
>
> To use Rob's example, the DNS service without the ability to configure TTL.
>
> And the apparent stagnation of the client code interface and RWI. We
> resellers have been bemoaning the state of the client code and RWI
> usability for literally years. The latest word is that new client code
> is important and probably 6+ months down the road. I remember that same
> "official word" perhaps 2 years ago, back when the SF client was the
> model on which the client code was to be built. Specific bugs and
> suggestions have gone unimplemented. (Does the client code currently
> require a payment method - e.g. credit card input - for renewals? This
> was the first reason I went to the SF code. We don't want to keep
> numbers on file, customers' credit cards expire or they change cards or
> addresses; what is Tucows's model for getting payment on renewals? None
> apparently from the client code.)
>
> The email product has the potential to be a great outsourced service for
> those of us that offering fits our needs (mine does), and while some of
> the product are excellent, it falls short of being superior on multiple
> levels. The new feature additions are an improvement but don't quite
> take it to the A list. The webmail interface is still clunky, even
> compared to something like Squirrelmail, and doesn't even come close to
> the web interface of Cyrusoft's SilkyMail. And besides, how many people
> want to use webmail for their primary mail client? Not many I know. My
> clients want the features to be usable from their email client, and the
> webmail is something to use when they're not at their computer.
> Features like the shared address books are great but aren't going to
> mean anything to my customers unless they can share them from a mail
> client. There's no mention of the protocol (is it LDAP? ISMP? ACAP?
> or something proprietary from Stalker?) There are many other issues,
> some of which I've raised, and Bruce & Peter, you know how to reach me.
> :-)
>
> The point here is that with core reseller products it seems we're given
> a less than complete, and thus less than competitive, solution. It
> almost seems that the products (at least the Email and Managed DNS) were
> determined prior to extensive discussion about what resellers
> needed/wanted in the offering, and now that the products are out there
> it might be difficult or impossible to mold them to what our customers
> need. This leaves us in a difficult position of either offering
> something we're not excited about, or not offering it at all.
>
> This is in stark contrast to what's going on with the Blogware
> development. That product is being tested, hammered on, Bugzilla'ed,
> discussed in detail, and most importantly modified to what the resellers
> want. I'm convinced it's going to be, already is really, a top-notch
> product that's ahead of the curve, not behind it like Email, Managed
> DNS, client code, RWI.
>
> IMHO, I'd really like to see Tucows re-tool the quality of the products
> in the same spirit they're developing Blogware. Remember guys, this is
> technology --- you don't want to be playing catch-up.
>
> Thanks for listening
> tj
-- Elliot Noss Tucows Inc. 416-538-5494 enoss.blogware.com
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