Just when I thought the misinformation that competitors spreads about Lync/OCS was the tip of the iceberg to get a leg up in the UC race, they went a step further. Suspected full time employees of a competitor (who shall remain nameless, lets just call them vendor X) registered and attended Lync launch events by registering with false company names to get into invitation only customer events.
Now, I totally get the whole you do whatever you can to get a leg up on the competition type thing but this is a new low that I was unaware of. We have all done the thing at the trade shows where we watch a competitor do a demo of their product in an open and public forum. Maybe you went as far to turn your badge around or swapped badges to hide who you worked for, but actually submitting a false company name to get into an event, really. Had it been an isolated case I probably wouldn’t have cared but it was by no means isolated to one city. The fact they think no one would notice is what really cracks me up. I am only aware of one large competitor doing this but time will tell. If you can’t guess who vendor X is yet your just not trying.
I am sure that vendor X would dispute this by saying it was the actions of “a few individuals” which it very well could have been but in the end Lync is a great product and it shows just how concerned “a few individuals” are.
Comments welcomed.
VoIPNorm
I wonder if these were people that came from the company those shares recently dropped the most in more than 12 years and had the first earnings miss in at least the past 5 quarters leaving some analysts questioning the company’s long-term strategy?!
ReplyDeleteI think you are right- take it as a back handed compliment. "Vendor X" should head back down south on the I5 and hang their heads in shame.
(Im talking about their quarter results as well as their underhand "James Bond" like antics!)
Dear vendor X:
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft actually provides you with an open resource for you to learn about Lync. That resource is called TechEd. TechEd Europe was running all week in Berlin and was very well attended. Even "vendor A" had people there to learn about Lync, duly identified on their badge. We did not kick them out, nor did we refuse their questions. Of course, there is an entry fee associated with TechEd - maybe times are too tough for you, poor vendor X, to pay for it?
Now, in the unlikely case this was just the result of select individuals making the same mistake in several cities at the same time - maybe they just wanted to network to come work on Lync. Working on the winning product is fun! So, to make things simpler on them, here is a list of job openings: https://careers.microsoft.com/Search.aspx#&&p4=all&p0=&p5=all&p1=all&p2=1014%2c1013&p3=all
Sincerely...