SignVOX - Data Migration
The fear is not about nature disaster or hacking of data, it is about the company behind it. Fear of being controlled by it.
You pay a sum for a POS software, the program will work even if that company is out of business. The Cyrious 2000 still works on XP with parallel dongle, you can switch computer freely (except it is hard to find a computer with parallel port nowadays.) You can sell it freely.
Upgraded to Cyrious 8.6 with USB dongle, now you have to call tech support if you switch computers ($125). You can not sell it without their approval ($750). We lost control.
Now with the concept of VOX. You really feel like it gets you by the balls. So you will assured us that you won't raise the fee unless you have to, like 1 year, 2years or...? or if you don't raise it, you will go under. either way we are toasted.
Please enlighten us upon our exit, how can we use .csv or pdf. to reconstruct customer file, past invoices, product data?
I am interest in your product, how about free trial offer? What is the relationship between your company and Sign arama?
I would like to clarify few things:
1. Yes we will raise prices, but we wont price our selves out of the market and shoot our selves in the foot. Now you can say what is the raise, I cannot tell what it will be just like any other business, just like every one expects a raise, my employees, my landlord, my utility company, my kids allowances, we will raise the prices too and if not we will be out of business as you mentioned. Within the community here every one has an opinion and every one sees a different value of what it is worth of what we provide. If one does not see a value they wont pay as simple as that and some one else will come along and grab those those customers. Just like what we are doing now, providing value for the money you pay. And there is nothing for free in this world. Some one has to pay, otherwise E=MC2 wont work.
2. As a co-founder of SignVOX this is what I promise w.r.to your data, you get your data in .csv files (customers, quotes, invoices, orders, products) and any other data you need. These are what we import from other sign POS softwares today when they migrate. And we have figured out how to take this data and put it together for our customers. So when you move from SignVOX to others they will ask you to get the data which we readily provide and they will figure out how it fits into their model.
3. We are a software company and we are not after your customer db, because I dont know what I will do with it. It is as good as a Yellow Pages. Lot of people talk about "my customer list". What is that list, it is in your yellow pages, google local search list, yahoo search of business every where, because every business wants signs so that is not proprietary. If you are doing good it is not because of the list, it is because you provide a good service and value and they want your service.
4. Our relationship with Sign*A*Rama is just like any vendor has with Sign*A*rama we are the preferred vendor to provide the sign business mgmt. software to all their future stores.
5. There is no upfront fees for you to start using it except for the monthly fee. It is pay as you go so, signup and test it out and see if it fits your bill, if not just let us know and we stop billing you, as simple as that. We tried free trials and no one has time for it when its free. And people who are serious about it have never had an issue with paying for it. Here is what I can offer, after the trial if you give me 5 things which we cannot fix within a reasonable time which are show stoppers for you to do your business, we will refund the fees. I get some real feedback at least for the time you have spent to truly test it.
And lastly, the world is moving towards the cloud based/SAAS software. Cause it is easy to make and manage and it is easy for people to own it for a fraction of the total cost on a monthly basis. You will not have packaged software in future. Year to two years from now. And it is the right thing for all parties involved. Also it is good for our customers because we cant hold you hostage cause you paid upfront. We have to earn it month by month. If we are not providing good service you will remind us every time you pay for it.
I hope I have clarified your questions, if no feel free to PM me.
, one of my favorite services. Great example of SaaS.
