Allen Systems Reviews

Pros

Work life balance
Vacation days
Nice work space
some good coworkers
location
hmmm
cant think of any more

Cons

20% pay cut for the last 3 years
Very limited career opportunities
constant stream of new so-so products acquired
Too many products
Allen's emails
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Too many others to mention

Pros

decent technology overall and some exceptional technology

Cons

exec mgmt does not give the field any authority

Advice to Senior Management

if you give field mgmt responsibiliy for revenue then give them authority over their patch

Pros

Until a couple of years ago was a great friendly professional working atmosphere.
Office in a convenient location.
No sustained pressure.

Cons

No investment in improving the software, most of the products are stuck with 90's technology with a handful of developers either working on the massive backlog of customer tickets (for the products that have customers) or facilitating the lies that have been told by the sales teams to prospective customers. There is no attempt to be looking at new technologies - just a recent infatuation with the cloud without really understanding what it's about.

The company strategy seems to be buy a failing software company, get rid of 90% of the developers, get the sales team to sell as much of the products as possible before the customers catch on and then repeat...

No pay-rises for 4 years in probably the most successful global industry, speaks volumes with the majority of other software companies seem to be doing well despite (probably because of) the current global economic climate whilst ASG seems to be doing worse.

All company announcements (what little of them there are) are about sales, zero announcements on new technology initiatives - I wonder why that is.....

Advice to Senior Management

Stop telling us how much money you are making whist the majority of your staff are on a 4 day working week and the rest aren't getting any pay-rises in a growing industry sector.

Move into a different sector instead of software, your sales staff are obviously talented because I cannot understand how anyone has bought some of the products - they are just terrible. But software house require substantial investment in R&D otherwise they quickly become yesterdays news, if you can't understand this it's time to move on.

Pros

Easy to get in and to get out of the office. Everyday around 3:30 we start packing up for the day and by latest 4:40 pm we are all out and the office is locked. Many paid sick days and family days are given. No control over anything.

Cons

Severe theft problems. obviously no control over management to see what they are doing. Management shows no interest in ASG as a company and are just worried for themselves and are doing funny stuff at work. No vision for future.

Advice to Senior Management

The company sees to have no head. No control means chaos. It is good for partying but we all know this cannot last long. A word of advice: Wake up!

Pros

I enjoy the people that I work with and the type of work that I am involved in. The office is very nice and the location is very convenient.

Cons

Treated like assembly line workers where we have to badge in and out. HR has no regard for employees that are not members of AA inner circle.

Advice to Senior Management

Read a book on how to properly treat employees as the professionals that they are. There are many outstanding employees at ASG so stop treating them as if they are landscapers.

Pros

access to the latest technology

Cons

20% pay cut for 3 years
no raise for 5 years despite outstanding reviews every year
401K match of 6% was discontiued 3 years ago
paid for 4 days a week but expect to be availble 24/7
HR is just a figurehead, uselse unless someone is to be terminated

Advice to Senior Management

Close the south campus and the hangar. Terminate the lease on the private jet. Move into less expensive buildings (Wait, we can't - One of Art's other companies is our landlord, and ASG leases the jet from yet another one of his other companies

Stop going more into debt by buying other companies, and recognize the people who are really keeping you afloat (here's a hint: its not your 200+ sales staff.

I suspect a mass migration is about to occur in 2012.

Pros

Good people across different departments at non management level.

Cons

No pay increases, even if you are the top performer within a team.
Micro management.
Poor requirements gathering and product management takes nothing to do with the products.
3 years on on a 20% pay cut.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to staff.
Gather real customer requirements.
Provide pay increases for performance.

Pros

Work life balance is good. Time off is easy to get and vacation and holiday pay is reasonable. People are friendly.

Cons

No innovation. All innovation is purchase through acquisitions and that's where it ends. The innovate people leave as soon as they are assimilated into corporate.

The company culture is more akin to industrial manufacturing then software.

The badge clock system is rigidly monitored for software professionals. The time wasted on making sure your badge report is accurate and reporting any discrepancy to corporate is unheard of in the software industry.

Employee's pay has been reduced by 20% for close to 3 years now while ASG has had a record year of acquiring new companies.

No 401k employee match.

Promotions are only given in management. I've yet to see a non management employee promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up! It's 2011. Read some books on the software industry and its progression.

Pros

it is better to have a work like this but having no work. but this is the only pro

Cons

after our companies has been acquired the situation has changed dramatically. having been a great place to work until april and now everybody seem to be so unmotivated, even frutrated at all. and top management especially mr allen will do nothing to change that. a lot of people already left the company but the only thing mr allen does is to say that those people were not the right ones to see the upcoming opportunities and already did a big favor to the company by leaving. this is so ridiculous. i hope i can leave the company very soon...

Advice to Senior Management

why haven't you let us and other companies where we originally were - happy, motivated and with a perspective. please let the rest of the employees do their work without management by pressure.

Pros

Some very competent engineers work in the trenches and most were a pleasure to work with.
For the most part, work/life balance was good

Cons

Management and HR have no communication skills or do not see the importance of communicating with employees.
Management and HR too worried about employees trying to cheat them. Rigid hours and lunchtime policies made it seem more like working on a factory floor than a software company.
Not enough time and resources devoted to improving or developing products. Nearly all resources devoted to acquisition of the next product that will also not seamlessly fit into the product suites.
Three or more acquisitions this year while US employees are still on a four-day work week.
Poor raises in recent years. No bonuses or profit sharing.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. Don't inform them they're lucky to have a job or that a new hire is coming who will teach them how it's done. Most of the engineers are, in fact, better at their jobs than management is at theirs.
BTW: The employees with whom you have the opportunity to talk are not the only good employees and they aren't even necessarily the best ones.