Actuate – “How They're Surviving”

Pros

The company still has that spark of an enterprise software company from the late 90's. Creative, independent with a eye to the future. CEO is well grounded and accessible if you pretend you're from New Jersey / NY. Got to be ready to be part of the "boys club" if you want to move up. Sales culture is typical of companies like this. Miss your number for a couple of quarters and you better be looking for a new job. Development is pretty closed off from the rest of the company (good/bad?). Marketing is actually a high point for them.

Cons

I worked from home. The company didn't embrace the remote worker idea to much. Hurt me in the end. I found the product space a little boring, with few exciting ideas coming from development. They were swimming through the current recession by going back to existing customers and "making them honest" on their software license/contract terms. This actually was the only revenue driver for the last 12 months and the company would be toast today if it weren't for the 15 years of license violations that they're now policing. It's almost like banked money they're now collecting. Customers are happy to get 50 cents on the dollar for their purchase back in 2004. It's a win-win, but with a mafia/IRS kind of twist...come clean and pay up, or we'll yank your license.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a buyer and get out of the market while you can. Oracle and SAP will crush you in 2 years. Otherwise, get lean and continue down the open source route. Prepare employees for the inevitable downsizing and cut them some options.