#norocketships issue 45
Biting the hand that feeds IT - ironies, coincidences and opportunities 🙂
Good people of tech, we could not resist a 2nd January issue here at #norocketships towers. As the silence within SaaS persists (compared to the noise of AI), we are here to bring you the gossip, rumour, suggestions and praise where it’s due.
Yes - we’re becoming the popbitch of tech.
Eyes down.
Vile Rumour & Gossip
Platforms come and go, but when is an aging platform still relevant? Word is that Intershop recently won a decent-sized deal. For you younguns this is the predecessor to Demandware/SFCC which itself is no spring chicken... so WHY? is the question? We wonder if the current players were too people-constrained to pitch?
Customers are super-frustrated with the sales playbook that takes 2 calls just for a price? Who has time to speak to an SDR, then an AE and then a sales engineer only for the price to change 3 times during the process anyway? Grrrr....
SCAYLE is making waves in the U.S. having failed to show up really in the UK. A lot of noise but the classic “stepping stone” tactic using the UK to bounce to the states always seemed odd to me, and this is proving that it was unnecessary. Some wins already and a strong pipeline - bon chance!
Seems odd to write given the state of US politics, but privacy is becoming big in the states. Fines are starting to creep in, and unlike GDPR where the single box got ticked, state variations are easy to trip up on...
Product beats People
No issue of #norocketships would be complete without a Shopify section. The comment we’d like to make this issue is that once again, they’ve shown the way for tech vendors in knowing that great product beats everything else. The layoffs they’ve made in partnerships clearly demonstrate several things:
1 - Shopify is increasingly a configuration platform, requiring little or no dev, and therefore fewer SI’s the implement. Partners count less than they did. “When everyone is super - nobody will be” - remember that quote?
2 - Customers do not churn if you invest in the product - Shopify has incomparable churn numbers, even amongst those that it was felt would outgrow it a few years ago
3 - ecosystems are lazy in the main, Shopify is relentless
Another thought on “Product” though. Such is the plethora of vendor launches and SaaS iteration today - that feature/function selling is becoming more than a little worthless. Customers expect your tooling to improve, your software to bloat almost monthly, and for features to be “nice” but not worth buying.
Instead (and once again we’ll use Shopify as an example), all vendor products need to start connecting themselves directly to consumer behaviour and an evidential consumer benefit. If vendors are able to do that - then retailers & brands will see value and produce their digital signature immediately.
The end of the Agency as we know it?
Another slightly “heavy” section, but no fear, for levity follows we promise. I (Jamie) have spent the last few weeks and months chatting to every type of agency around, from Global superpower SI to small organic SEO crews.
They’re all terrified of the risk they carry, the rate at which clients churn, the microscope that they’re all under, and in large part the way in which revenues are diminishing.
In fairness, the model of selling people’s time for profit is pretty broken. Much more tech is commoditised, media is easier to use than ever, and even complex integration is becoming table stakes. So, where services get sold… where is the opportunity? SI’s need to think harder than just putting on a new set of clothes and shoving AI at the front of their name that’s for sure… reputation is still really the only true currency that matters.
No question - big grown-up integration programs are the key opp, and building in-house proxies for true AI development too. The AI “layer” is also starting to emerge, and as I research the next MACH conference it is clear to me that the gap between those 3yrs in to AI versus those yet to start is mahoosive!
And media? Frankly who knows... and that’s the point I think. Customers are worried that agencies are unable to invest in decent service, and are just parroting back what Google tells them to say... it’s the wild west all over again right now.
How to manage vendors (Forced fun)
We wondered where to start this series, there’s so much here to laugh about. The Commerce Futures WhatsApp group is a pretty grown-up place full of customers NOT growing sellers under the bus. But - recently there was an outburst in response to a question from one member about whether a guidebook might exist on how to manage vendors…
Instead of a guidebook, the group (lead by our chief sarcy bloke known as “Vague Fierce”) started a list… this is part one:
1) what they will try to do to you and to those around you
2) Make them work for it
3) Out legal them always
4) Sign in haste, repent in leisure
5) Free days aren’t free if I’m paying for them
6) Why am I the one spending my time reintroducing myself annually
7) I can make a better breakfast at home
8) Do you have a roadmap or the intention of a roadmap
9) What’s your exit strategy
10) Build it yourself
11) There are no shortcuts
12) What if I don’t like Rugby/Cricket/Padel/Golf?
There are at least four more of these, and we’re taking suggestions. You can DM Jamie or reply to this email and only he will see it - All suggestions will be anonymised.
February here we come - payday loan anyone?
A new episode of the podcast here
Jamie
#norocketships Insults for the office
Frequently used (but never about you) phrases from #norocketships.
Coleslaw
/Coal/ /Slaaw/
adjective
Scarlet runway will be interesting. Love the 2 calls for pricing point. Great read