[Sigia-l] RE: Google Appliance

[Lyle Kantrovich]

On 11/2/05, Gabriel <gabriel at graphnical.com> wrote:
> Thunderstone, founded in 1981, received its first big assignment in 1986
> when it was chosen by NASA to index all of the Challenger debris resulting
> from the Challenger Disaster.
>
> I think all of what you claim below about the site is true, yet this is a
> case where you do not judge a book by its cover.
>
> Look at their client list
> (http://www.thunderstone.com/texis/site/pages/Customers.html); how many
> Universities, Fortune 100 companies and State departments do you see listed
> there?

Many vendors have impressive sounding/looking client lists.  I've
learned to not be impressed.  All too often you learn that the product
is used in some minor way or on a minor site vs. on the very visible
site you think of at first.  (E.g. if Amazon.com was using
Thunderstone on their intranet, that's much different than on their
U.S. e-commerce site.)  I've also had occasion to call "clients" of
vendors to find out that they are a "past client" or unhappy with the
product.

To expand on my point about their site not looking very
"trustworthy"...I've also learned that companies selling web
technology that have poor UIs for their own site tend to have poor
product UIs.  This isn't a hard and fast "rule"...just a tendency I've
noticed.  There are some great, small companies out there.

Anyway, I was hoping you could offer some insight into what
differentiates Thunderstone.  All I hear is you're a happy, paying,
(kool-aid drinking) customer.  :-)

--
Lyle

--------------------------
Lyle Kantrovich
Blog: Croc O' Lyle
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com