What are some challenges customers are facing right now with ETRM systems?
Transcription
Howard: When it comes to technology, I guess one of the places to start really is with the customer, right? So, what are some of the challenges customers are facing right now in utilizing this type of system?
Sterling: I think there are a few of them. I think that total cost of ownership is a major one. Certainly, we all appreciate systems are expensive, but really wrapping your arms around the total cost of that can be really significant when we look at IT budgets for customers.
I find this surprising, but initial implementations are still proving to be challenges. Sometimes, it's not a 100 percent success rate. And, certainly, in those scenarios, you always have three groups responsible for the success of a new implementation: the customer, the system integrator, and the vendor. So, certainly, from our perspective, that project doesn't go wrong without some kind of misbehaving of at least two of the three of those. So, we're seeing those [types of implementations]. That's a little bit shocking that those continue to be challenging for some groups. We're not seeing 100 percent success right there.
I'd also say that these systems are largely not intuitive, and thus, bringing one of these on board at your business can prove to be a challenge of training for employees. That's a difficult hurdle in some scenarios.
These systems are also largely difficult to support. I’d say that it's challenging to see that, and we feel for customers when those moments happen. However, I think we're seeing lower vendor support as I spoke about [in part 1]. Once you lose that competitive activity between different major providers, then suddenly support is one of those areas that can start to slow down.
Also, very much in house for businesses, I think it's difficult for them to find competent resources who they can hire in house because right now is a tightly constrained resource market from an employment standpoint. It's very difficult to find individuals. So, I think that's tough.
I'd probably say that all in all, one of the final changes that customers experience is that these CTRM systems were not built with user experience as a focus. To say that is even a little lighthearted as well. Years ago, it was all about: Can you get transactions in? What is the kind of speed to market? Opportunities are going by…how can we capitalize on those? [All ofthis] from the vendor space in CTRM.
But I think there's going to be a new focus in the next-generation tools and in the years to come on really the customer experience / user experience. It's hard that all of us have now lived more than a decade with a smartphone in our pocket, and we'd say that most of those applications are nearly pretty in comparison to what we're seeing in CTRM / ETRM. I think we're going to see a push for those platforms to have a bit of a facelift.
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