The management team that was actively involved in this slander is still running Softscape. Could you really tell a buying organisation that it shouldn’t consider this fact? Is this a company that you can really trust?

I think these are completely legitimate concerns.

Every vendor I know walks a fine line between what they sell and how they sell it. No vendor can claim complete moral turpitude (look that one up in the dictionary). Heck, even some could argue Oracle’s high maintenance and forced upgrades, are borderline unethical. I believe ultimately customers should be making their own decisions based on all the facts (and trusted advice of course)!

No one has said exactly who at Softscape was “John Anonymous” who distributed the document. If it were CEO Dave Watkins (or with his approval and guidance) that’s one thing, but if it were a bunch of overly aggressive salespeople that would be quite another.

We don’t know.

The first might back up their claims; the second would be just another example of selling software being a blood sport. I’m reminded of the recruiting company (now out of business) whose salespeople created a dummy consulting firm, got new cell phones and numbers, and used it to solicit full demos and high level pricing from all their competitors.

Is that better or worse?

For me, I’m just glad it’s all over, and everybody can just go back to trimming their workforces, battening down the hatches, and trying to survive the worst year for software sales (or subscriptions) since 2001.

I am not always right and often enjoy a good debate but prefer to do so with complete transparency which includes identifying yourself so the audience knows the context.

Lastly, please allow me to share some advice in this giving season…if you don’t like what I write, turn off your RSS reader or don’t visit my blog.

Have a nice holiday season.

Bill, I have read the actual complaint filed in the US courts, as viewed the infamous powerpoint presentation, and find the scope of the whole incident to be pretty broad. I find it hard to believe senior management did not know of its existence.

Of course we don’t know the absolute truth. But the core point of my comment was that this incident is a legitimate concern for a buyer. I would agree that it not the only concern for a buyer.

That being said, I would like to comment on what Bill said…”No one has said exactly who at Softscape was “John Anonymous” who distributed the document.” I think legally, that is irrelevant as each employee of Softscape is an agent of the company. Normally if management wasn’t behind such a tactic they would search out that employee, fire said employee and issue a statement. This was not the case in this situation. Would you ever trust a company that acts in such a sophmoric way?

I agree that SoftScape used an unethical tactic. But I will also say from experience with SuccessFactors that what the powerpoint said was largely accurate. Those guys have to advertise a lot to make their product seem better than it is. IF SS was smart, they would spend money on real advertising rather than on boneheaded ploys like the one they used.