Analyst: 'SOA vendors can't explain their own products'

Dave Linthicum, now of ZapThink, was recently asked by some SOA vendors to critique their approaches to selling to customers.

Sell ideas, not canned product pitches

In a new article, Dave doesn't mince words: "Truth be told, I can't believe the unsophisticated approaches many vendors have when selling their product.... Many SOA vendors can't explain their own product, or the core problems it solves. They do know how to list buzzwords they think will 'wow' their prospects and existing customers. However, in many cases, the customers become further confused or, worse, don't even get the core concept behind the product, not to mention SOA."

This reminds me of the first installment of Greg the Architect, in which Greg is besieged by some very obnoxious vendors trying to sell him SOA. The first vendor promises SOA if Greg's company migrates everything to the vendor's software, hardware, and services. The second vendor speaks technobabble, and the third wants to help Greg reach his "inner SOA."

Dave says vendor representatives tend to deliver too many canned pitches, rather than truly exploring customer pain points and requirements. "SOA vendors need to embrace a more consultative type of selling approach. ...the vendors that will succeed will have the heart of a teacher, not a salesman," he points out.

One of the challenges with SOA, at least from a vendor perspective, is that ultimately, it's a philosophy, not a tangible product. And, ultimately, SOA provides a way to extend and deploy functionality without the original vendor. With true SOA in place, customers have significant additional leverage -- they can pick and choose, plugging in solutions from elsewhere, and swapping out what no longer works with another vendor's solution.

Vendors are not conditioned for this kind of sale, Dave explains. "Most vendors have never sold an architecture before, just tactical products that service some specific purpose. All architectures, inclusive of SOA, are really around the right configuration of technology and understanding, and not technology itself."