Great news: Rashid Skaf to Depart AMX

vincen

Nice to hear Rashid Skaf is at least leaving AMX management ! I have the real feeling he didn't make it up to develop AMX and get it with right management focused on customers and development of efficiently working products (when the 2 years delay after release to get a working product will be dropped ?) and not just buy aside companies never integrated in AMX line correctly (why do I need to waste some control ports to control these aside products instead of updating them with ICSNet connectivity).
Hope the new guy will think more about customers and real need of markets to get products really working well, correctly supported and (we can always dream) with some efficient programming softwares

Vinc

ericmedley

At Developers Conference I and others voiced opinions that AMX should never bring on and then release a new acquisition company/product without it being 100% AMX Native. To me it's the technological equivalent of "If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it..." If you acquire a product - prove that you're 100% behind it. Otherwise, keep it in the development lab. That bonhomie goes a long way with customers/dealers/developers. The opposite has the inverse effect (As I feel we've seen over the past 10-15 years)

I don't know if the feeling was wide spread in the group. But, it sure was my opinion.

neoguiri

I hope to see the whole politic of AMX changing, regarding the development of module and software. I'm not sure AMX open is eye on the reality of the market in the real life.
Just have a look at Cres*ron (*** One more exemple of the stupid politic of AMX forum) and you will get a good line to follow... Please make AMX more compatible by providing up to date, easy and open module. More reliable and more stable for client and independent programmers. Don't run to much at buying over and over new manufacturer without consolidate the basics!!!! I don't know what to say but a lot to do to make AMX the best company in automation as they think to be.

bwestlake

Maybe we can get a new version of IREdit???

techniquesmethodes

absolutely agree with you guys

Chad Reynoldson

Terrible post!!! Rashid was a visionary that took AMX upward and he will be sorely missed.

Joe Hebert

Chad Reynoldson wrote: »

Terrible post!!!

I agree. I?d be surprised if this thread isn?t considered libelous. If it?s not it should be. It?s just plain wrong.

PhreaK

Every single leader and strategist will do things that some people don't like. This is generally just referred to as doing things. If you're not taking actions or making decisions that are contrary to at least one subset of the populations viewpoint, you are not leading. What separates a great leader form a terrible one is how considered those decisions are.

I, for one, welcome AMX's new overlords, but at the same time appreciate some of the decisions of the past. I had a chance to catch up with Shaun Robinson during Integrate (Australia's pathetic attempt at an InfoComm-ish show) last week which has definitely renewed my interest in what's happening. I'm not going to disclose contents of private discussions, but I'm at least hopeful for what may come in the future of AMX/Harman. They only thing that concerns me is if it's going to be possible to maintain the existing developer community until these changes can happen.

John Nagy

When things change, 66% of the interested public generally complains.
When things don't change, 66% of the interested public generally complains.
That means 33% will complain no matter what.

vining

Well I know I shouldn't but.... While considering all the variables at play, the market changes, technology shifts, iThingies, etc from a dealer/installer/programmer/resi guy's perspective who could care less about most of the acquisitions AMX has made over the last ten years, AMX has been going in the wrong direction for my liking. Of course I'm in an obsolescing sector (resi) but that's more do to AMX's decisions and support than it is the market, it's a mentality caused but lack of support in all directions when it comes to resi. From what I hear AMX's profits are great so Rashid did his job well but I don't think it's due to increased sales driven by quality of AMX's products but the fact that AMX is still better than the competition in the wasteful government and corporate sectors that have been spending tons of money on infrastructure improvements in order to increase productivity in a global economy with less employees.

I suspect a lot of the problem over the last ten years were caused by the former owner's corporate mentality where profit trumped all other factors in the decision making process so Rashid did what he was hired to do and AMX profited but I think a new leader at the helm would be a good thing since IMHO the last ten years was pretty much all down hill from where I sit. Of course it can get worse too but I have no choice but to keep the faith that things will improve.

ericmedley

I guess I can't pile on one way or another. I've been on both sides of the fence and I can tell you that I honestly don't think Rashid did good or badly. I'm of the opinion that a lot of what drives what we feel as 'bad things happening' are not really in our control per se. No amount of AMX doing it right is going to change the fact that markets change on evolve. If that were not true - why did Kodak disappear in a mere 2 years. No company that large can move quickly enough to survive a fundamental shift in how we take pictures nowadays.

I'm not saying I like what happened to AMX over the years. Nor do I think the CEO is blameless. But, I feel the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Even Steve Jobs made mistakes.

ericmedley

Oh - and some easy legal advice on this thread being libelous... just change the title and all your statements to suffix with "In My Opinion"

vincen

ericmedley wrote: »

Oh - and some easy legal advice on this thread being libelous... just change the title and all your statements to suffix with "In My Opinion"

Don't worry, AMX would have censored thread since a long time if they had wanted as that forum is everything excepted free speech (consider fact you can't even name competitors freely...).

Regarding direction of company, I agree fully with Vining about fact that AMX probably focused mainly on goverment and administrative customers and completely putted aside residential market unless it's a very big market. Whatever market they focus on, you still have to supply working products and programming tools for it ! When you consider that a daily tool like IREdit has not been updated since ten years and still has some really boring bugs, it's completely unacceptable in my eyes. Same with DGX matrixes (it crashed all the time, behaved very bad, and we had to get V2 firware to get stabilised product, released 2 years after release of product.... what are you supposed to say at customers that payed the product pretty expensive that it doesn't work and it's way to do of AMX ?? Best way to get it to move to competitor whatever it is...). AMX releases nex NX controlers that loo really nice, and two years later the Duet programming tool is still unusable with it and no update at line of sight..... and so on