Chairman
a la mode, inc.
To: All WinTOTAL users
From: David Biggers, Chairman, a la mode, inc.
Re: Aurora, Athena, a wheel, and a Range Rover
Yes, the four things in the subject line are all related to each other. Let’s dive in and you’ll see how:
1. As Adam mentioned, today will mark the end of my “every two weeks” e-mail dialogue. With each message, the range of issues needing to be discussed in such depth gets narrower. We had a lot of lost ground to make up at first, but now it’s time to move beyond the broad narrative and get back to communications as you would have expected from the beginning – narrower in scope, proactive, and forward-looking rather than just explanatory. There will still be messages from me to all of you as needed, but they’ll be irregular and generally limited to cases where it covers more than the WinTOTAL product line. Plus, our newsletter will pick up that spot again.
The messages you get after this will commonly contain just bulleted summaries and contain links to our WinTOTAL Version 5 (Aurora) status website for details. In fact, let me point you to it now:
http://www.alamode.com/Aurorastatus
If you visit the site, you’ll see answers to virtually all of your common Aurora-generation questions. What’s the status on desktop billing? It’s there. What’s changed in the next update and what impact will it have? There.
2. E-mails to Athena and Aurora users will be kept separated from now on. If you’re using the older Version 4 (Athena), you won’t be e-mailed about Version 5 (Aurora). Athena users who want to “keep tabs on Aurora” should simply visit the website above occasionally. This will cut down “crosstalk” and allow Athena users who don’t care about Aurora to simply ignore chatter about it for now, and allow Aurora users to ignore e-mails sent to those using Athena. If you use both, you’ll get both.
3. Some components of WinTOTAL aren’t under our control.
I get consistent questions every day about two things I can’t control: “Why aren’t the street maps up to date?”, and “Why haven’t you fixed the problems in Apex that I reported long ago?” Both of these are third-party components where we can pass on suggestions, but we have no control over their code, or their responsiveness. Street maps are pulled directly from Microsoft’s MapPoint servers, and we can’t affect how quickly they add street segments or 911 changes, even if we’re a large client of theirs paying for tens of millions of maps. (Our old provider, Vicinity, was bought out by Microsoft, so our contract transferred to them. We’re revisiting our contract now.) Likewise, even as an integration partner of Apex, issues related to drawing within the sketch and even with the integrity of the sketch file itself are under Apex’s control. You’ll see the same Apex issues reported on various forums regardless of the brand of formfilling software used.4. As promised, we’re making progress on clarifying our pricing. One of the first steps is to show all the exact discounts on individual invoices (especially credit for unused portions of annual subscriptions), and kicking you quarterly “statements” showing exactly what you consumed on a prorated basis that quarter. Given the complexities inherent in having tens of thousands of appraisers with an infinite variety of products, renewal dates, and overlaps (i.e., two Vault accounts simultaneously on purpose) versus sequential renewals, it’s a much bigger project than you’d think. But our internal developers have been working diligently on it, and I expect you’ll see better invoices in a few weeks, and proactive statements starting in the third quarter. We’ll also be reducing our retail prices, and the discounts at the same time, so that “street price” and retail are closer together.
Most importantly, while our Elite bundle will still be the best “deal” by far, this new invoicing structure will make it clear exactly what discounts were applied to its components. Elite upgrades always have a lower first year’s cost because you’re usually “trading in” unused months of several other products, so the invoice clarity has the biggest impact there. While Elite saves you the most money, it also contributes to thinking we go after “big shops” since it does so much. In actuality, the opposite is true. Smaller shops need the “jack of all trades” tools just as much as bigger ones. It’s simply been our goal to handle all the pieces of your daily puzzle, large or small. And that leads me to my final point today.
5. Our new “Appraisal Wheel” makes it clear why we’ve naturally evolved to a broad product line. Over the past 20 plus years we’ve noticed the appraisal world is divided generally into “Report” and “Business” centric users, regardless of size. The segments of our wheel – the things you do every day – are coded in green (Report) and blue (Business), so it’s apparent how some things fit into “Report” and others into “Business”. It makes it easier for us, and for you, to see how features and processes and even whole products fit into the needs of all types of appraisers. You can pretty quickly self-assess whether you’re more “Report” or “Business”, or a healthy mix of both, and see where our products touch the parts that matter to you.
This isn’t just some marketing ploy, either. You’ll see how using the wheel as a “lens” into your world and the lack of linearity in it will push future developments from us to be sharper, more focused, and more on target with what really faces you – rather than just overwhelming collections of features. It’s already driving clarifications to workflow inside WinTOTAL, and other products as well.
Plus, you could win a Range Rover just for reading about the “wheel” over on our website. Why give away a Range Rover? We realized your daily business is similar to an SUV – you have to do it all, “off-road” or on, with no excuses. We also realized that it’s critical that you really understand where we come up with the stuff we do, and rewarding you for studying it seemed like the right thing to do. (And what a cool way to show up for an inspection with a Realtor...) To learn about the wheel, and register to win the Rover, come to our website at:
http://www.alamode.com/Appraiser
Click on the green-and-blue wheel header, or the blonde (see, you already have more choices depending on your preferences). By the way, the models you see us use are our actual employees, except they look better than the ones in Wal-Mart ads. (Just kidding. OK, maybe not.) Come meet them, plus the rest of us “less attractive” staffers, in person at the convention in Orlando. Our Orlando convention is always a smaller and better focused affair than Las Vegas, so you’ll be able to corner us and ask all the questions you want. Tip: corner me at the bar. I’ll be the guy with the Mickey Mouse ears and the tray of shot glasses. All joking aside, we’re there solely to answer questions and get face-to-face thoughts and ideas from you. It’s always a blast and everyone benefits. We’re truly looking forward to seeing you there.
It’s been a pleasure talking with all of you and I hope you’ve found the communications and directional changes to date to be helpful. Adam will take over from here and get you all the details and responsiveness you can handle. Plus, I’m not going away, so you can always reach me at dave.feedback@alamode.com. As other non-WinTOTAL issues arise in the future, you’ll hear from me again. Thanks for your patience and your business.
Dave Biggers
Chairman
a la mode, inc.