Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

I think that expectations are the most important thing to manage. No Corporation can do everything. If the Corporation said for example, that "All bug reports would have a response in X days" or "All Core modules that have no bugs will be released in less than 3 months :)

Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

Your comment:
"The next step we believe is for DotNetNuke to become central or core or a required element of an organization’s (small & medium; perhaps large organizations as well!) software infrastructure."

Background: I run a niche-market hosting business on DNN and have been using it since 2004.

Be sure to consider that the majority of DNN's growth has most likely come from micro-businesses, hobby users, small developers and the like. These users can't afford SharePoint and the like, plus they want the flexibility and inexpensive 3rd-party modules that DNN offers. Now you may say that from a business standpoint, these users won't bring in much revenue, which may be true. However, they offer something more valuable: They are your biggest marketing, PR and sales asset.

For example, an individual developer tries DNN because it's Open Source, Free and easy to try. He likes it so he uses it with his customers and those customers become users now. Those customers are the small and mid-sized companies that you mention, but you didn't have to sell anything to them....your 'micro-biz' single developer did that for you. Now those same small and medium sized companies may buy services from DNN Corp or maybe the 'micro-biz' developer will buy them from you to support his customers. Maybe the developer will start selling modules for DNN that further promote and strengthen the product.

These tiny businesses and hobby users also get your product out there in the real world in huge numbers you will never achieve without them. They are finding bugs, writing blogs, helping on the forums, etc.

In your quest to move to the next level, please be sure not to leave out that bottom tier of users since they are the foundation that helps DNN grow. They are your free marketing, PR and sales force. For example, last time I saw the DNN support pricing it seemed a bit high for many users.

Maybe you can use the forums/DNN website to get feedback from the masses on any plans you are considering. You have massive support now but a mis-step could easily drive people away to other CMS systems.

In my own case, I would be willing to buy support from DNN corp on a per-case basis if I could get interim patches to major issues quickly. It's VERY hard for some of us to do major upgrades very often due to testing time, 3rd party modules, etc. I would gladly pay for individual critical patches prior to their inclusion in a major release or back-ported to my older release (I'm on 4.4.1 and 4.9.0). I would also gladly pay a reasonable hourly rate for a DNN Corp employee to help with critical issues on my sites (if I could get an interim patch to fix issues and not have to do a major upgrade to fix one issue).

EXAMPLE: Offer a professional support contract with a cheap base price like $199/year. For the $199 you get up to 1 hour of support from DNN across 2 cases. You can buy additional hours for $50-$75/hour and you CAN get individual patches for issues you deem critical. I know you want to support only fully tested major releases so you could offer only paid support for the critical patches and they would be overwritten on the next major upgrade applied by the customer. Also give the paying customer some kind of access to a private PRO forum where they can get some kind of inside news and priority answers to forum inquiries. For example, you could say that questions in the PRO forum would be answered first before DNN Corp/Core team members answer the community forum questions. This is cheap to offer so KEEP THE BASE PRICE LOW like $199/year or so. Go much higher and you cut off major numbers of people. PRO users would love to have a forum where they could get answers first and where there were only other serious users but the price can't start at $500 - $1500 year for this.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to the future of DNN.

Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

I'd like to share a thought we've had about DNN that I think ties in with your post above.

We view DNN (and other similar apps for that matter) very much as a Web era evolution of the base operating system.

Remembering the days before the GUI O/S, Windows, OS2, etc, DNN fulfills a very similar role for web applications that Windows/Linux etc fulfills for Desktop applications.

As a business I would like to ensure. i) Certainly that there is longevity in the platform and that I can get support for it. ii) That there are a wide range of quality applications applicable to my business available for it. iii) I can get supporting services for the platform.

It's interesting when you compare say SAP with Windows as application platforms. SAP provide a platform that facilitates the building of integrated Business Applications because this is what it's API is designed to do, where as Windows facilitates the building of a wider base of applications by being more abstract in the API it provides.

Taking a lesson from Windows success, it was the applications that made it popular. MS Office for instance. Then it was the deals struck with Hardware Vendors like DELL that made it ubiquotous.

I would suggest a course of action for DNN might be to focus on the ensuring that quality applications are built and promoted for the platform (this is good for everybody). When I look at MS's history and portfolio of products, I see that they have always encouraged application development with API's and strong development tools, and that they have regularly acquired products developed for their platform (SQL Server, VISIO etc.). Maybe a lesson to be learned their?

Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

I would like to know if DNN Corp has any definitive numbers showing the percentage of users who are "professional" vs. "hobbyist" and the many levels that fall under each of these categories?

Also, under which high level objective will documentation fall under? DNN still seems lacking in this area even after offering a paid sponsorship and review programs. Many core modules lack updated documentation and the users both professional and hobbyist, are left to using the forums as the primary source for information regarding usage, and styling. I would not want to be forced into paying for support documentation that should be included in all core releases.
Thanks...

Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

Hi Navin,

Thanks for another great post and for your active involvement with the community. I thought of Jim Collin's hedgehog principle when I read your post and I wrote a blog entry about it here:

www.itcrossing.com/blog/entryid/302/a-hedgehog-principle-for-dotnetnuke/

Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

@dnner - Some great thoughts. While I don't think that $50 to $75 an hour is the right range for consulting via DotNetNuke Corp, I believe there are a number of great companies out there that will fill this gap. That's one of the advantages to DotNetNuke. There's a great ecosystem that's grown up around the project. I would recommend that an organization build relationships with more than one vendor. Not only does each vendor have different price ranges, but they also have varying levels of expertise. Some excel at custom module development, while others excel at DNN administration and management.

Re: The Key is "Continued Unrelenting Progress" ... for DotNetNuke!

Way too much in the comments to read right now. But this is a great post! I agree completely with you, Navin.