As I pass among the delegates at Access 2008, I seem to feel a special hatred of Innovative Interfaces Inc emanating from all systems librarians forced to use their products. Not only do I hear a lot of complaining about problems librarians continue to experience with their software, not to mention their extortionary pricing model, but there’s a particular exchange that has occurred more than once. It goes something like this:
Person 1: Not only do I not like Innovative, but I can’t remember anyone stating one good reason for going with them, or anything positive about their product.
(4-6 other people in the conversation) Me neither.
“Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself,” advised Ray Kroc, former head of McDonald’s. Innovative is evidently not making their customers happy, and I can’t say that I’m optimistic about their ILS business.
A complaint I hear frequently is customers, who have already paid a kings ransom for an ILS, being nickled and dimed to death for consulting, enhancements, customization – anything off the menu. This in itself is not good or bad, its the way business is done. But my cronies tell me that purchase and maintenance agreements are interpreted, how we shall say, “starkly.” Always to Innovative’s benefit. Never to the customer’s benefit. Fast forward 7 to 10 years and that’s got to be more than a little grating.
Innovative has long had the attitude that the company is doing the customer a favor and not the other way around. Once the snowball of interest and energy behind open source products starts to cut into Innovative’s business maybe we’ll hear something different out of Emeryville.