Monday, June 17, 2013

Customer is King

Once upon a time, ...

Let me take you back to some 20+ years ago( I would call this as early days for ease of understanding) , when computers , software, software job were the buzz word. Anyone knowing computers and software was called techie( Today the definition of techie has changed). Software jobs were much in demand. Customers were all looking for implementing, upgrading and changing the software /hardware system. Competition was growing and so was business. During those days, I heard these lines , "Customer is King". 

It just stuck to my mind, to travel back to early days and find out how this "King" has evolved or changed with time. I am using top 3 things which comes to my mind.


Customer : Collaboration
- In early days : Customer (Business and IT) were all really charged up for results using software and hence they collaborated well with vendors and results were great.
- Now: Today also Customer collaborate, and  results matter. What does not matter is which solution you are using. This has given rise to easy excuse of not using /the software solution.

Customer : Vendor : Trust
- In early days : Customer had trust on Vendor. any vendor on customer site was treated as expert and even if he did not understand a small part of business, it was okay with customer. Vendor also trusted on customer and hence was more open to try new things for customer solutions.
- Now: Today both customer and vendor has lost trust in each other ( although the projection given is as the best trust bond). As a result customer is not ready to invest time and expect vendor to know everything of the business. This also stops vendor from trying new thing, as they think customer may deny this or worst may not even pay for this.

Customer :Vendor:  Time of Delivery
- In early days : Time of delivery was not the hanging sword for the vendor or customer. Both customer and vendor could spend some time and find the best suited solution for challenge or opportunity for the customer.
- Now: Even before the scope is finalized the date of delivery is fixed. Solution has to be delivered at the date of delivery agreed.

I am sure every one with around 15 or more years of experience would have seen changing face of a customer - vendor relationship. These are my personal thoughts and are not directed towards a customer or a vendor specifically. Idea here is to analyse, gather ( from other people's comments) and then apply in our lives.


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