The Channel, Quality And Strength Indicators
So what defines quality at Sun? Whatever it takes to get a customer to recommend us - quality's in the eye of the beholder (like the government customer that said they wanted more blinking lights on the bezels of our machines to make it easier to impress parliamentary decision makers - no, I'm not joking, and no, I won't tell you which government). It's easy to measure, easy to understand.
But is it easy to achieve? Schwartz says Sun is paying its salaried employees to do just that:
When it comes to compensation, that's getting easier, too: we're moving toward incenting every individual at Sun on the overall RSI of the company - to get everyone focused, no matter where or to whom they report, on driving the willingness of the person on the phone, in the visit center, on the internet or in the customer or employee base - to recommend Sun. Everybody influences RSI, from the receptionists to the executives. How? What a great thing to think about.
That's great, but he doesn't mention including Sun's business partners in that incentive system. If everybody influences Sun's relative strength indicators (RSI) - - "from the receptionists to the executives" - - where do solution providers, resellers and integrators fit in? He doesn't say.
For those who doubt that quality indicators can be helped much by having a strong channel, they need not go much further than some events involving the direct PC king Dell recently. Blogger and journalist Jeff Jarvis started a mini-blogstorm a few weeks ago when he complained about the quality of Dell's service programs, faulty technology and broken promises. With no real channel to go to bat for it, Dell has taken a pummeling of late, according to this analysis Jarvis posted on his web site. With no real channel, nobody outside of Dell – save for some customers here and there – goes to bat for it during the tough times. Who, outside of Dell, evangelizes for the company?
If you're an executive running around looking for ways to boost your company's quality ratings, like Sun has done, forget the channel at your own peril.