We’d like your input – how do you perceive us?
Posted on June 7th, 2010 by Paul McArdle – 5 CommentsThis may be the first time you have read an article posted on our “Behind the Scenes” blog – or you might be a regular reader.
Whatever is the case for you, you will have formed some kind of impression about our company, and the type of B2B software services we provide.
As such, we’d like you to tell us what you think of us, as this will help us to continue to develop and enhance the services we provide – now into our 2nd decade of service.
1) Our questionnaire
quick and easy (under 5-minutes)
Because of our timetable for how we’ll be incorporating your responses, we’ll be keeping this survey open only until Friday next week, 18th June.
The questionnaire we have prepared for you will be online at the following address:
You can choose whether to identify yourself in your survey response, or not - we’re keen to hear from you, either way.
Thank-you, in advance, for helping us to serve you better!
2) About the questions we’re asking
…and why it’s important we hear from you
The concept of “Positioning” means slightly different things to different people.
Those who’ve read a little on the blog will have noted that we’ve been pondering this for a number of years – initially in relation to our ongoing process of finding a new name for the company, but more recently to do with broader aspects of mapping out where the company is headed.
At a high level, it’s all about how you view us - as a (current or potential) client, partner, investor, or employee - or maybe a combination of some of these.
What are the first words, feelings or thoughts that jump into your head when you think about us, or our products?
It’s important that we understand this, in order that we have a clear picture of our starting point for the journey ahead.
It’s especially important that we gain a broad cross-section of views, in order that we can confirm we have a realistic view (i.e. not rose-coloured) of our starting point. Hence, please don’t be shy in telling us how you feel - whether you love us or hate us, or are somewhere in-between.
This simple Questionnaire has been prepared in order that you can input into our picture.
3) Why we’re asking these questions now?
after our first decade, and into our second …
As you may be aware, in February this year we passed our 10 year anniversary.
We’ve been serving a growing (and diverse) range of clients in the Australian National Electricity Market since 2000 (and in Ontario since 2002).
This has been challenging at times, but we’ve mostly had fun!
(a) How we’ve arrived at our current point
The following is a précis of the company history, outlining how we’ve arrived at the current point in our journey.
i. Early Years
In our early years of operations, we were delighted to be able to develop a number of innovative software products, including, but not limited to:
(a) Our display of current trading in the NEM - NEM-Watch (since 2000)
(b) Our historical analysis package for the NEM - NEM-Review (since 2001 – now finalising the release of v6)
(c) Our display of current trading in Ontario’s market - ez2viewOntario (since 2002).
(d) deSide ® as a tool to facilitate demand-side response amongst industrial energy users in the NEM (since 2004 – soon to finalise the release of v3).In the early days we also had a go at a number of other products that did not do as well – all part of the process of iterating towards a business model that the market wants, as discussed by people such as Steve Blank.
ii. More Recent Years
In the more recent years, our focus shifted to be more about consolidation, with few new products released, but version upgrades delivered for those above, and others.
iii. The past 12 months
We also take some pride from what we’ve achieved over the past 10 years – we have more than 100 corporate clients (across 4 continents) who use our software to sharpen their understanding of the electricity market.
However, we know we’ve been far from perfect. Given that Relentless Improvement is one of our core values, we have certainly disappointed ourselves at times.
Over the past 12 months (as time has permitted) we have used the occasion of our 10 Year Anniversary to map our our Vision and Mission for the next decade of our operations.
We have done this (with the help of a couple external coaches) in a process which I initially termed as an “autopsy” – but which could have been more correctly termed a “retrospective”, given the currency of that term in the Agile software development process (which we have been progressively adopting as standard).
(b) The Future we’re striving to create
We’re committed to “punching above our weight” to make the electricity market understandable, through an expanding range of innovative software products. I’ve already posted about our Mission here.
I’ve also posted about some ambitious goals we have set for ourselves over the coming decade.
We’re excited by the prospects for the future.
However, we know it is essential we have a clear view of where we are currently at, in order that we can also have a clear view of the magnitude of the challenge facing us.
We have also recognised the importance of getting the right people “on the bus” (from Good to Great) as a prerequisite for us to be able to deliver on these objectives. Hence:
(i) we have been investing considerable time in the upgrading of our software development capability, starting with our GM for DDD WCW.
(ii) in a couple of months, I will be initiating a similar process in the recruitment of a GM for Sales & Marketing.
We look forward to continuing this process of progressively enhancing the service we deliver to you, as we continue into our 2nd decade of operations.
Your input into our Questionnaire will most definitely help us with this.
Thanks once again (in advance) for any insights you can share with us.
G’day Paul,
a refreshing and cleansing way of doing things; I hope you get what you want out of this survey.
All the very best,
Darryl
Thanks Darryl
You have met with us, and understand that we’re looking at plenty of opportunity ahead, and have a plausible chance on delivering on this - but will be so much better situated when we have worked through the changed currently underway.
I am neither (or both) a “glass is half full” or “half-empty” guy, and really just want to have the most objective view possible of where we stand, to give us the best chance to deliver on our vision for this decade.
The responses we have received already are proving to be very helpful.
Cheers
Paul
[...] not all) people who come into contact with us – as we have been told by those who responded to our recent survey. 3)
[...] believe that, as a company, we do this already – certainly the responses we received from our positioning survey seem to indicate that clients (and others) understand & value the fact that we’re honest to [...]
[...] asked for some feedback through a variety of mechanisms (including this survey) and have listed to the responses – some quite [...]