Ace Re-cert & BullsEye
vining
Posts: 4,368
After giving myself a few days to calm down I've come to a few realizations.
I guess there was more to this years ACE re-certs that wasn't readily apparent to myself or to most of us for that matter and it means the training departement probably didn't go rogue and on some freakish power trip like I was thinking. In light of the new policies published in the release of the BullsEye program there seems to be a well thought out company wide agenda in the works here which seriously changes the stakes for us, the folks affected by these new policies and this years ACE re-certification requirements.
The agenda or plan to:
Nerieru wrote:
I guess my analogy would be to remove the weeds from the garden since the weeds tend steel the sun, detract from the gardens beauty and they use up vital limited nutrients and resources required for the plants or flowers to flurish and grow large for the harvest.
I don't like the men/boys analogy since I would likely be the boy while the larger co. with their departments, engineers and secretarial staff would be the men. Not sure I want to be the pig, although all this programming has made me look more like one than I did before I started this and I don't want to be a weed or plucked out of the ground along side the weeds since I'm just a small budding dealer and easily overlooked.
With this in mind I think I need to re-think everything I've said about the re-certs up until now. Well I still think they're a waste of my time but there is a purpose now where before I didn't see any. In light of the overall agenda it's kinda like suicide not to comply and I was hoping for at least another 20 years or so of working with this stuff.
Now if I can find time in the time that remains with every else that's going on I guess I'll concede and attempt the re-certs. The only thing that still kind of bites it that with this years sales and next years projected sales I might get the boot anyway. Oh and there's still that $5k thing. I was going to buy some voip/SIP gear anyway to see how well I could integrate with Cisco gear so maybe I'll buy myself another year and play this coming year by ear. Maybe after their agenda reaches fruition things will return to normal and the feeling I have that there's a lazer IR illuminater sighted on the back of my head (BullsEye) and a long range 50 cal snipers rifle out there over the horizan will go away.
And a Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas everybody!
I guess there was more to this years ACE re-certs that wasn't readily apparent to myself or to most of us for that matter and it means the training departement probably didn't go rogue and on some freakish power trip like I was thinking. In light of the new policies published in the release of the BullsEye program there seems to be a well thought out company wide agenda in the works here which seriously changes the stakes for us, the folks affected by these new policies and this years ACE re-certification requirements.
The agenda or plan to:
Nerieru wrote:
or as Spire_Jeff said:"het kaf van het koren scheiden" (that's dutch) which is 'separate the wheat from chaff' in English (which is exactly the same and has the same meaning), for those unfamiliar with it it basically means 'separate the men from the boys'
Amx is looking for dealers to be committed, not simply interested. You know the difference between committed and interested? The chicken is interested in bacon and egg breakfast, the pig is committed.
I guess my analogy would be to remove the weeds from the garden since the weeds tend steel the sun, detract from the gardens beauty and they use up vital limited nutrients and resources required for the plants or flowers to flurish and grow large for the harvest.
I don't like the men/boys analogy since I would likely be the boy while the larger co. with their departments, engineers and secretarial staff would be the men. Not sure I want to be the pig, although all this programming has made me look more like one than I did before I started this and I don't want to be a weed or plucked out of the ground along side the weeds since I'm just a small budding dealer and easily overlooked.
With this in mind I think I need to re-think everything I've said about the re-certs up until now. Well I still think they're a waste of my time but there is a purpose now where before I didn't see any. In light of the overall agenda it's kinda like suicide not to comply and I was hoping for at least another 20 years or so of working with this stuff.
Now if I can find time in the time that remains with every else that's going on I guess I'll concede and attempt the re-certs. The only thing that still kind of bites it that with this years sales and next years projected sales I might get the boot anyway. Oh and there's still that $5k thing. I was going to buy some voip/SIP gear anyway to see how well I could integrate with Cisco gear so maybe I'll buy myself another year and play this coming year by ear. Maybe after their agenda reaches fruition things will return to normal and the feeling I have that there's a lazer IR illuminater sighted on the back of my head (BullsEye) and a long range 50 cal snipers rifle out there over the horizan will go away.
And a Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas everybody!
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Comments
I, for one, applaud your decision to try and re-enter the fold. I value your input and tenacity and would sorely miss your presence in the ACE forum.
Whatever's broke can be fixed. But, coming in from the 'outside' might prove to be quite a challenge.
So, good on ya.
e
Competent programmers have reported that writing a program that apparently satisfies the continuing practical requirements takes about eight to twelve hours, more or less. I've completed the program and turned it in (last week) and can personally verify that there is nothing about it that is difficult to figure out or to program. All the requirements entail things that have been discussed in these forums many times. Some of it's a little goofy and some of it's a little tedious and there are stated requirements that entail doing things in ways that many of us would consider sub-optimal (to be kind). But, the requirements are well within the skills of almost everybody who posts here with regularity -- certainly within the skills of the folks that are considering giving it a go here at the last minute. My suggestion is that if maintaining certification may be important for any reason, it's probably advisable to devote the time to creating a program that satisfies the minimum stated requirements and then deal with edits if the grader feels that some of the requirements have not been satisfied. It seems to me to be very likely that if certification is allowed to lapse that there will be some additional pita requirements tacked on for anyone wishing to reinstate certification later.
My personal experience, I can't really say how long it took me to program the thing as I programmed a C*tron master to simulate all the devices as described in the requirements. And, I did the programming in little pieces over several months and generally dicked around with it. However, I've programmed plenty of systems of similar complexity and I would say that such a system would normally take me about a day to do -- maybe six to ten hours +/- a little depending on whether there were hardware problems, whether the guys with the screwdrivers and wire cutters wired up things correctly, and how much I screwed it up with silly programming tricks.
So, anyway, that's my opinion. If certification is, or may be, important, just do it. It's not that tough.
Once again, piss poor performance from AMX at the leadership level, but now those of us who actually make their product work are supposed to bear the burden.
These actions don't do anything to hinder our movement to the other manufacturers platform, and it seems that AMX is almost daring us to go 100% for the other team.
I'm still waiting to see the materials.
Brad
From what I've heard from several at AMX, here on the forums and just from other dealers who've heard from others - I find it *VERY* hard to believe that AMX plans on coming down as hard as everyone is saying on the smaller, yet more successful companies (i.e. the small firms that employ 8 people, but do more than 200k a year.) They'd be shooting themselves in the foot!
It will be interesting to see how firm AMX stands on their word next year.
Just like we have nine days to do our re-certs, I believe AMX has nine days to get us the requirements for next year (as far as the 2010 ACE requirements go.) While some are working furiously to get the re-certs in, I wonder how hard some are working from the training department to have the guidelines ready for next year.
I agree with this. There is no reason to do anything other than what the requirements state, and that is not a whole lot. There isn't even a requirement that your 232 communication be buffered in any way, so unless you get really anal about it, there is no reason the actual programming should take any longer than 15 hours or so. Without the help of an emulator though, the testing was not very fun. That is my biggest complaint.
I wouldn't worry though, if Joe can pass they can't be grading that hard.
AMX
AMX IS TARGETING YOU IN 2010
I've already stated I feel like the bullseye is painted on the back of my head and now everytime I go outside I'm gonna be crouching, moving quickly with erratic motion, finding cover where ever I can just so they can't keep the bead on me long enough to take the shot.
Am I being paranoid?
Ok, the email itself sounded friendly and made the Bullseye Program sound like a good thing, which I'm sure it is if you're standing at the butt end of the rifle. Damn I'm so confused!
The problem I have with the email blast is that the website it refers to (amx.com/bullseye) does not exist yet.
Jeff
Not sure I like the idea of having to have my company id handy to talk to tech support...
-Ryan
One thing i like about AMX tech support now is that anyone can call and get support no matter if they are a dealer or not. That's not the same with Cr_stron support. Too bad AMX is going this way. I think this is a disadvantage and not an advantage
Where's the personnel requirement coming from - all I've seen is the $$$ to maintain bronze?
As I heard it, it?s an AMX problem if something under warranty doesn?t work, not your problem.
I imagine your best bet is to call your local rep for clarification or amx.com/bullseye once it has content.
To quote Ralph Kramden, ?Har har, hardee har har!?
I don't think of this as the end of a good thing, I view it as a good thing getting better as I am sure that tech support will continue to be willing and able to help. I am hopeful that the new policies will make tech support even better by allowing them to add more personnel and/or give the existing support personnel the time they need to improve information exchange so that they are not the last one's to know about firmware upgrades and wide-spread issues.
Jeff
It seems like AMX is trying to emulate what Cisco has achieved in their field. Cisco is nuts with their charges, you have to pay them like 500 bucks to report a bug, but the one thing Cisco does have in their favor is extremely thorough documentation.
Also the above is my own personal opinion and has nothing to do with my company
I can say that I agree with most of what everybody is saying in this thread but I am going to take it a step farther. MY company will not pursue AMX for any further dealer status. AMX is pushing small companies like mine out by this new "policy" or "program". it sounds like they are trying to tighten their cash boot straps and taking it out on the ppl that actually take their product to market. I CAN NOT sell and support a product that does not support me as a dealer. There are other companies out there that are hungry for our business and will not beat us up for needing to call TS or not hitting BIG numbers. I can only hope i get my job finished soon.
This is not what I was sold from my rep in FEB 09 and im very dissappointed.
on a second note: AMX got a real quick dealer response from its dealers on the webinar and it was not at all positive. I hope it resonates.
Unfortunately in the resi market there's not that much to differentiate the products in the mind of the client that makes them prefer one control system over the other. If anything Crestr0n has more brand recognition than AMX and I've had more clients ask if we can do Crestr0n than the other way around. From a resi standpoint I don't think AMX is going to get in on its own merits, it only gets into a project when the dealer specifies it. In the mind of the customer, control systems are secondary to the "main" parts of an integration project. The primary concerns to the end user are going to be sound quality, picture quality, and installation quality.
Just to make the point very clear, you're not going to hear someone say, "I love that TV, it's the best picture I've ever seen, but I won't buy it because I don't like the remote." It's the same principle with control systems. They'll choose the audio/video, etc. They will take whatever control system you give in most cases (if you can sell them on the value/benefit) since that's secondary in the client's mind.
AMX is going to need to do a PHENOMENAL job of getting clients to seek them out and differentiating themselves as hugely superior, otherwise dealers like adcantrell are going to sell every one of its customers on Crestr0n. And quite frankly if adcantrell is good at what he does, he'll continue to be very successful without AMX.
--John
The point of the bullseye program as I understand it is to make it so that I can stomp the Crestr0n dealer without having to fight with competitive "me too" AMX dealers that are sub-par. I would hope that the tech support charge will go away after the less capable AMX dealers are weeded out. I certainly hope that AMX does more to get customers to seek them out otherwise I believe this initiative will fail. I don't agree with that demo requirement... I've got enough demo gear to do what I need to do. Even if AMX gave me demo gear free, I still wouldn't need it or use it to close sales.
And lastly, I think Dan (Vining) is perfectly justified in feeling like he's got a target on his back... in this tough economy I would hope for some loyalty from AMX. Based on my experience with AMX though, they are a loyal group and I expect only good things from them. I just hope my trust in them is well placed.
--John
I got really rattled when I saw the first BullsEye postings. And then I got the ConstantContact newsletter...even though I'm a UK dealer
When I talked to my rep he didn't see how I thought there was a problem and he told me he thought I'd like the program in the New Year. Yes, I love feeling unsettled
I think whoever is in charge of their marketing should hang their head in shame. This is a completely botched piece of communication. We have Home, VIPs, ACEs, VA, Slamdunk, Davey, Dozey, Beaky, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all... do they not realise that doing a few things extremely well is a better strategy than releasing a whole chunk of initiatives that look like they've been farmed out to interns. Product is great; no doubt about that; the marketing is feeble
We've got a pretty serious AMX business, we're totally committed to the platform for various reasons and I don't like feeling this unsettled. Poor communication, I'm really not very happy.
<edited>
that's a channel management issue though. it seems that AMX did not task their field personnel (rep firm or direct regional mgr) with developing/updating their channel strategies for specific geographic areas. These folks could have detailed which dealers were strategic for certain areas, which were largely self-sufficient. They could have also been given tech logs to show which ones need to re-cert and pay for support (or simply move on).
We are in a smaller area that is not an eclectic, high-wealth market. We are able to work automation into many projects however, but we'll probably never be much more than a niche company (and we kind of like it that way). Last year was tough, but we think (hope) several projects will come back to life this year. We've also picked up several clients from another dealer who is out of business.
The Bronze program is probably a show stopper, although I haven't made a final decision. The reduced margin coupled with the support fee, demo requirements and training requirements make the financial proposition very unattractive in these economic times. On top of that, given our niche focus, we'll probably never reach the balance of 30% of our revenue from non-traditional products.
AMX hasn't had rep firms in quite some time - so I don't think it's fair to point the finger at them.
we still have a rep firm in our area...in fact they just fired the old one and hired a new one. sorry for the generalized statement, didn't know that wasn't the case in other parts of the country.
Curiously - where are you at? I thought AMX dropped all of their actual rep firms and went with directly employed sales reps. I'm here in the midwest and we are very happy with our sales rep. I'm curious as to how the rep firms will affect the game. My hunch is since AMX isn't "messing around", they got reliable rep firms and it'll only help in the long run.
I'm in Birmingham. Not sure about our rep firm yet, they're a new company. The old one was pretty bad though. I would certainly prefer to go with a direct rep for strategic lines, vs. dealing with a company that is trying to push 20 different lines.
As for the Bullseye thing, I have already noticed a degradation in AMX tech support. I used to regularly get a tech within a minute or so, when it wasn't instantly; the last month or so, I've had to wait on an average of 15 minutes, sometimes as long as 40. I'm not impressed much by that, and can't help but feel like the program is just a way to limit calls so they can operate with a reduced staff. That's a cynical view, yes, but I find it very hard to believe it can be otherwise, considering in the 15 years or so I've dealt with AMX I have never seen such delays.