Vendors Need to Feel the Burn

Leading technologists of major vendors expounded the need for technical innovation during a panel at the recent XChange Tech Innovators conference in San Francisco. But they were caught off-guard when solution providers started challenging their companies' commitments to supporting innovations.

"There were several appliances we got stuck with, including the costs of pulling them from the client," charged one solution provider. "What are you vendors doing to make sure this won't keep happening?"

"We're the ones who have to live with your mistakes," said another. "You can make the customer happy with refunds, but that doesn't help us absorb a cost we can never make up."

In VARBusiness' exclusive State of Innovation survey, most solution providers said they are willing to take a chance on emerging and innovative products, but expect a return on their investment within 12 months (see "ROI Expectations," right).

Panelists acknowledged that some vendors could do a better job of supporting their products, especially legacy systems that remain in use. Gregor Freund, outgoing CTO of Check Point Software Technologies and founder of personal firewall vendor Zone Labs, cited his approach to legacy and ongoing product support as one to follow.

"We added people from Zone Labs who knew how to sell the products, and we kept the team intact until the products were truly integrated into our portfolio," he said.

However, the panelist concurred that solution providers shouldn't buy into innovative and new products unless they're comfortable with the technology and are sure that it meets their customers' business needs. In other words, if innovation doesn't contribute to the core mission, solution providers should pass on it.

"If everything is 100 percent successful, then it's probably not innovative," says Kenneth Schneider, chief software architect at Symantec.