It’s been just over a year since the launch of Raven Intel, and I wanted to share some quick highlights. Raven’s mission is to make Enterprise Software implementation a positive experience for customers, and to help raise the visibility of Consulting firms (aka “Systems Integrators”) doing great work.  In my previous 20 years in the HR software industry, I witnessed too many customers disappointed with bad projects (spending millions more than they had to), frustrated with a subjective partner selection process that is 10+ years out-of-date–and I wanted to change that.

While the journey of starting a business is never easy (particularly when you’re looking for real customer sentiment on a touchy subject like implementation!) I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far.  We have a database of over 350 customer project reviews that is growing every day, and have already helped many customers find solid partners who will give them the best chance at success.

What is all of this data that we’ve collected in the past year telling us?

After reading 350 or so Enterprise Software customer reviews and conducting countless 1:1 interviews with customers–the data is clear.  There is a direct correlation between a positive implementation experience and the long-term success of the software.  We rarely see customers who have had a bad experience with their implementation (and partner) rate their software vendor well.  We have also found no clear pattern that suggests larger consulting firms (e.g. the “Big 4”) produce better project outcomes for their clients.  Enterprise Software project success depends on (2) wise decisions:

1. Choosing the right partner

2. Defining a solid project scope, team and timeline to create the strong foundation upon which to build

We produced 2 reports which provide more detail on this area:
> Mythbusters: Debunking 6 Common Myths About Enterprise Software Implementation
> State of HCM Implementation

Enterprise Software Customer Reactions & Reviews

Approximately 85% of our reviews came by going directly to Enterprise Software customers, which provides our visitors a candid look at reality. We’ve spent the past year at trade shows, local networking events, sending email, LinkedIn outreaches, even cold-calling—you name it, we’ve done it. When face-to-face with a customer, we’ve never had anyone turn down our request to write a review about their implementation or project.

Because maintaining the integrity of our review data is critical to our business–every one of the 350+ reviews on Raven Intel has been thoroughly checked for authenticity prior to being posted or used in our reporting. Our thorough vetting process makes volume a challenge, but visitors can rest assured that every review on Raven Intel.com is 100% legitimate.

Especially for customers searching for a partner to help them with a software project, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve helped many a customer craft a shortlist of potential partners for their project based upon firmographic data paired with customer reviews that match the scope of their project. It’s a free service for customers, and one more way to help ensure the choice of partner is a solid one.

Consulting Firm Reactions

Our approach with consulting firms that implement Enterprise Software has been to introduce them to the concept and our site, and to request that they get their customers to review their recent projects (also a free service.)  The response has been mixed. The best firms fully embrace the concept and actively work to get reviewed by customers. There are a few others (you probably recognize their names) who have slammed the door on us, and some who say ‘great idea!’, then never help to generate a single review. (This doesn’t stop us—most of the 350+ reviews on our site were from us going directly to customers and not waiting for SIs.)

It has become easy to be able to spot good (and bad) firms from a mile away—not only from their customer reviews, but with how receptive they are to the concept of transparency. For firms that become a subscribing Raven customer, we help them benchmark their service delivery metrics against their peers as well as pair them with customers who have projects that fit their area of expertise and experience. While we offer a commercial model to firms, at no time can a customer pay for better ratings or to remove a review. Maintaining trust, despite our commercial model is incredibly important.

Enterprise Software vendors

Perhaps the biggest potential beneficiaries of Raven Intel’s information, are the Enterprise Software vendors themselves who rely on these partner networks to implement their software. We produce a quarterly index that looks at implementation across the various software peer groups (e.g. HCM) which illustrates things like on-time delivery, on-budget delivery and customer satisfaction (as well as 11 other KPIs.)  Our data can be sliced by software firm to show how they perform against their peers (in aggregate) as well as well as provide them with an independent, birds-eye view (or a “Raven’s-eye view” in this case) of who their best partners are and which might need some help. Particularly for vendors who seek independent, unbiased oversight on their partner networks to ensure quality delivery for customers, Raven Intel’s information and methodology can be very useful. Our view is that the vendors who embrace this data and the concept of transparency will ultimately benefit with better implementations and a strong partner ecosystem in the long run.

Thank you!

Thank you for your support this year and for helping to put Raven Intel where we are today. I look forward to what Year 2 will bring.

Bonnie

p.s. If you know of a customer who has recently undergone an Enterprise Software implementation–send them our way. As our gratitude for them spending 5 minutes to review their project, we’ll send them a custom report that benchmarks their project against other similar projects.  www.ravenintel.com/review