There is a limit to what you can do with an old version.
I just went through this with my company. Over 24 businesses like mine throughout California. Each independent, each one software based, and the software was 10 years old. It had been patched, fixed, modified, adjusted time and time again to keep up with the wishes of my customers.
But, it was at the peak of what obsolete software could do. 2 years ago we embarked on a new system, one that would Start at the level our current system was Peaked at. It was designed to expand, to build on, to grow. We don't need to rebuild the entire database to plug in a new tool later.
But, we were on hold for that 2 years. How do we market what's coming? How to we compete with what might be in a world tainted by vaporware?
We couldn't, so we waited. Some in our network complained that they were not being listened to because the changes they demanded were not being implemented. We tried to tell them, it's coming, the current system can't do that, the new one does, here, look at the alpha version. They didn't understand, it wasn't the software and a long term strategic plan, it was what they wanted right now.
So, they left our network and started a newer, better, greater thing. But, ours finished in October and we rolled it out. Theirs was scheduled to launch in January, it didn't work. Their system had 6 companies join it, my system had 13. 6 months later, we are now 18 and they are 5. We brought in new companies and took one of theirs. Our system is doing everything we wanted, and we can market. Our market share skyrocketed, we used to be a collection of loosely affiliated companies, we now merged into a single shared database and are the single largest networked system like ours in the nation. We have former national competitors now asking how they can piggy back on our system and are in negotiations with them to spend their money branding our product.
We lost members in the process to better marketing and deep pockets from that other network that left us. We just smiled. Last week, that network called and asked if there was any way we could collaborate. I said no. No reason to collaborate, when they lose their members, their members have a home and we are marketing that base aggressively.
Patience. I know tech. I know HTC. I have no doubt they know exactly what they are doing. AH2 is maxed out, peaked, beyond patching and expansion. This new version is better than the old one by leaps and bounds, and it's just the base of the possibilities. Just looking at what the foundation of the system can do reeks of possibilities many haven't grasped yet. This is about to get good.
