Activant Solutions Reviews

Pros

Nice group of people in the team

Cons

BAD management. Decisions made with no reasons, no advancement, alot of talk -- no action.

Advice to Senior Management

LISTEN to employees -- you talk a good game to customers, but inside we all know it is a lie. It is hard to give a good impression to customers when you don't feel any support coming from mgmt

Pros

May employees have been there a long time and still hold hope that company will (again) be well run and a place to enjoy working at.

Cons

No work life balance. Private equity firm squeezing everything they can at all cost.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the constant micromanaging. Empower your management and hold them accountable (to include up to CEO) if need be. Communicate strategic goals and tactical targets and then execute - do not run company with changing day-to-day priorities.

Pros

The people. Some of the most amazing people there. They were more like fmaily and friends than co workers.

Cons

Management has their own agenda. They do not care what you have to say as an employee. Just make your number. You tell them what they want to hear to close the deal. Tell them we will ship next month but ship it right away so we can cout the revenue. If they decide to not accept it, it is ok as we can recognize revenue twice! Sweet huh!

Advice to Senior Management

I would recommend they update their resumes, as Activant is being readied for the take over. That is the reason they have more managers than they have salespeople.

Pros

If you follow the fews rules that ask of you, then you'll fit in well. There's enough prospects in the patch to make a nice living.

Cons

Always looking for the next deal

Advice to Senior Management

Push the technology side of the software even more. Need more marketing/web efforts to generate leads for the sales reps.

Pros

They have acquired several solid vertical software products over the years. They still have many dedicated employees left from those acquisitions. (Although less and less each year.)

Cons

Activant does not value employees or customers. Both are treated a means to a $ end. They have no concept of vertical marketing. Their sales plan is a 'pick one' routine. This of course confuses the marketplace and each prospect. Major discounting is their best, most trusted sales plan. At last year's annual sls meeting they announced 2 major initiatives. (Net Promoter and a series of initiatives related to a $2M Bain Consulting gig.) Of course, similar to all upper mgt activities, neither initiative was ever mentioned after the meeting. These mgrs have no concept of the realtion of happy customers to success.
Upper mgt can not be trusted and have no integrity. Just ask their employees, customers and vendors.

Advice to Senior Management

LISTEN to your employees and customers! Clean out upper mgt and start over. None of these people have any credibility in house or in the market.

Pros

Home office; and that is about it. Would love to say the sales training, but, whenever we had sales training, they would forget about it 6 months later.

Cons

Where do you start? I can only speak for sales in the HWHC division. Unless you need a job, pass this by. For starters, the pay is very substandard for the professionals they hope to attract, and for the demands they put on their sales people. I am all for working hard, traveling every day and being away from home; but for a base of 55k, and when the company isn't selling, it isn't worth it.

They pay good lip service on their website as to what a great place it is to sell, but the reality is, the smaller competitors (who have new technology; Activant is still on legacy technology which their ERP platform was developed on 35 years ago) are taking huge market share from them. Instead of changing their pricing, they decided to go to new markets. Not a bad idea, but they expect immediate success; which just isn't happening.

Sales leadership - Every-time you have a review of a hot deal, be ready for a berating and second guessing. You can't do anything right, and they have all the answers.

Turnover - Highest turnover rate I have ever seen; this isn't layoffs. People start, and then quit within 6 months.

Timeoff - They won't let you take time off unless you are above quota. Rarely was anyone over quota; and if you do ask for timeoff, they will make you feel like you are neglecting your job, and will expect you to still participate in CC's and respond to email.

Benefits - Eliminated company match in 401k (so have alot of employers); eliminated reimbursement for home internet (duh, I work remotely, so now it is out of my pocket); Sales doesn't accumulate vacation time, so when you leave (regardless of how you leave), you aren't paid for unused time.

Comp plan - If you can figure it out, please post. It was so complex, and driven by gross margin. That is fine, but any discounts are applied against your commission.

There is no work life balance. You are expected to be out in your territory every day. Territories are multi-state. They don't want you cold calling on the phone. They want onsite cold calling; that is door knocking!!! Good luck spending time with your family. Again, if they paid well, it would be easier to do.

There are 2 kinds of businesses. Those that have Activant and don't like them, and those that don't that don't want to do business with Activant. It is the highest price solution by far, and most prospects know that. It is a good solution, but the pricing is so far out of line with the market

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in sales leadership from outside Activant that is open to new ideas. Selling today is different than it was 20 years ago. Change your pricing structure to meet what the market is willing to pay (remember Economics in college; price elasticity?). You want to hire professional sales people? Pay them what they are worth.

Pros

Amongst non-management employees there is a strong level of commitment, high energy, and a great deal of comradery. Also, there is no lack of challenges or work. If you are the type who hates having to look for something to do, Activant may be a good fit. That is of course only if you enjoy playing politics beneath a growing mountain of work.

Cons

Managers have a very specific set of answers they want to hear from their employees. Despite technical objectives not being met, providing a manager with the answer he/she wants often constitutes success. Hence the Machiavellian aspect. This may sound relatively benign, but when you consider that the employee is left to clean up the mess while the manager leaves at 5 PM, it takes on a more insidious character.

Also, perhaps to counteract the comradery of those at the lower end of the totem pole, management works hard to promote a culture of hostile competition and one-ups-man-ship amongst employees. When you combine this with the limited opportunities for professional growth and promotion, it is hard not to resent the needless strife on top of the already very high demands for productivity.

In short, it is an environment where employees are given an infinite amount of responsibility (under extreme duress) without the authority to make decisions. The authority to make decisions is in the hands of the managers as their bonuses are affected by deadlines and invoicing.

Advice to Senior Management

Customers and employees are most concerned with having a high quality product while management is concerned only with numbers and delivering the results their superiors expect despite whatever lip service they may pay to quality. Managers and executives should realize that sometimes delivering a quality product is going to hurt their monthly bonus, but that's life. You can't push a team to deliver garbage and expect to meet your numbers and get a bonus. It is childish and myopic.

Pros

The benefits package at Activant is very generous with the recent exception of the termination of matching funds for 401k contributions. In fact, there are many employees whose stated reason for working there are the comprehensive benefits. There are alot of bright people and the culture is positive, but very segmented.

Cons

There are alot of senior staff that have been with the company for way too long. Their skill sets and capabilities are no longer competitive in the industry, but it is almost impossible to get fired for incompotence at Activant. Very little emphasis is placed in achievment. Attempts at improvement are rewarded no matter what the outcome is. Activant is really 5 or 6 different companies with boundless redundancies.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire a few less "remote" executives that employees couldn't pick out of a line up. For god's sake... if your really worth high six figures then pack your bags and meet some of the people you will be responsible for. It seems like there is a new VP or GM every other week, but knowledge workers have been consistantly laid off for a year now... too many chefs spoil the broth.

Pros

the other employees, the company's software program, potential

Cons

When desicions are made, it either takes 4 to 6 months for something to start happening, or nothing changes. We are setup for failure from the start. Numerous employees give 110% or more of their effort and are receive 60-75% for their pay. The commission plans are set to reward you if you hit 100% or better, and if you hit that number you can expect a quota raise in the amount of your success. If you do not hit the 100% or great mark, you are stuck with "Decelorators". This is a great strategy to keep the company profitable and their sales team hoping to pay their bills.

Advice to Senior Management

if you value us, why wouldnt you pay us like it? Please dont set us up for failure, if we win so do you!

Pros

Very good interaction, respect and positive feelings between piers. Company’s past was an excellent and exciting place to work with the employees making the decisions on the most part that resulted in substantial growth.

Cons

Activant's upper management are throwing darts in the wind to try and figure out the direction of growth. There is an overabundance of upper management trying to figure out which direction to maintain the board of directors desire to maintain or increase EBITA. With sales and margins decreasing, cuting expenses is taking it toll on services and employees.

Advice to Senior Management

There needs to be a complete change in management's focus on where current business is and what new markets will be a win for Activant. There needs to be a complete revamp of how the products are marketed. Definite change in upper management is needed.