Managing information overload

Distributors and resellers need help in staying on top of ever-changing software licensing information

Licensing programmes need updating; new products, new versions and so on, all make this so. As do the pressures to maintain sales through the channel. Consequently, resellers and distributors find themselves constantly playing catch-up with new sales data being handed out to sales teams. And that information is being pushed out to the channel month in, month out.

The channel is drowning in data, particularly where software licensing is concerned. As a result, sales are suffering ­ as is customer service. After all, sales teams cannot sell if they are digesting new licensing programme changes and customers cannot be certain they are receiving the best advice, or are being sold to appropriately.

The irony is, the channel is suffering from information overload because of a lack of reliable automated processes. The words ‘automated’ and ‘reliable’ ought to jump out at anyone working in licensing sales ­ order rejection rates are in the region of 25 per cent because of errors during the sales process. This means lost revenue, an increase in costs to re-process orders and is damaging to customer relations.

The big question is why has the technology sector failed to put in place a more efficient rollout
of updated software licensing information to the sales people that rely upon it?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact there are so many software vendors, all with multiple licensing programmes that have information required by thousands of sales people throughout the channel. Marshalling that sort of data exchange is a task not to be taken lightly. But perhaps lessons can be learned from other areas of the IT industry, for example, the web.

Technologies such as XML, AJAX, and RSS have revolutionised the way information is made available on demand, in a format that makes it instantly useful.

Surely a similar approach could be adopted for software sales? One barrier could be a lack of standards, but this should be viewed as a challenge, not an obstacle.

With the resources available in the IT industry and the benefits waiting for both those selling and buying software and licences, this is one challenge the IT industry ought to be able to rise to.