Information Builders Reviews

Pros

Fantastic Software. The company is a technical leader.

Cons

Weak marketing. They understand what their customers want for upgrades, but IBI doesn't understand strategic marketing and how that relates to sales.

Advice to Senior Management

Please invest in better product marketing. The customers need to be segmented and the value defined for each group of buyers. Then, have that flow through lead generation, sales and delivery. Right now, it's a technology company, not a marketing company.

Pros

Ability to learn and grow, encourages employees to come up with and promote ideas, flexible/family-oriented culture

Cons

In some cases, does not adapt to industry trends and changes, as quickly as some employees would like

Pros

The company attracts good people, very helpful and friendly. The office amenities are good, as is the compensation and benefits package.

Cons

A little more attention is needed towards employee career growth and training / education. There is a technical barrier for business oriented staff that is hard to cross with personal effort alone. For Canadian office employees, especially consultants, there can be quite a bit of travel, especially to the USA.

Pros

Great location and very easy going work atmosphere. If you want a job were you come in do your days work and go home, then you can choose this company or the MTA. Great depth of experience (I would guess the average age is 50+ and average tenure is in the 10 - 15 year range).

Cons

Very frustrating if you are interested in technology. Terrible management team (I don't mean to be offensive but they are horrible). Many are home grown, who have no idea about the real world, which is o.k. but they also show no interest in the real world either.. No investment (or real interest) in staff development. Micromanagement to the level of insanity, which doesn't help employee development. Morale is very low, staff confidence in management is non-existent. Although the company believes they are interested in the customer, it is not reflected in the way some of them are treated. I think the main problem is that they are stuck somewhere between the 80's and the 90's where general usage of IT was no where near as high as it is now. They are uncomfortable in the "new landscape" where pretty much every consumer is tech savvy and have much higher expectations of technology products.

Advice to Senior Management

Some of you have to take early retirement. You must accept that your attempts (which I'm sure are honest) to help the company grow are just wrong. Invest in ideas, create a landscape where small empowered teams are allowed to evolve the product to new plateaus and allow yourself to be surprised by what they come up with. Accept that you are older than your customer base and their expectations are completely different to what you believe they should be. Devolve some of your internal empires and rigid management structure, in fact flatten the structure completely. Create an infrastructure that allows innovators to evolve and reward them when they succeed and nurture them when they fail. Find visionaries who are bold and inventive. But before you can do any of this, old attitudes to management, nepotistic employment tactics and crazy empire building strategies need to be nipped in the bud. Time to re-invent yourself.. The good news is, is that you'll be surprised how many people (who do not go to the management meetings) will support you. Good luck..

Pros

good work life balance
decent product in very niche markets
generally happy customers
well positioned in the smb space
privately held and many employees have been around for a long time

Cons

always behind industry curve
growth has traditionally been flat
poor quality products. very often half baked products are expected to be sold.
product support sucks. very poor documentation.
little investment towards product development and new feature development

Advice to Senior Management

invest invest invest in product developement. Sales and mktg can only get you the first opportunity. aim for repeat customers

Pros

First off, Great location of HQ. Manhattan, NY. Software technology stack is ok, Nothing great or Wow about it.

Cons

* Really old school of thought with Senior management.
Remember these people have been with the company since it was founded in 1975. Average tenure I have seen is 15+ years. Which is a good thing, but very bad for the product. The developers and product managers have no idea what goes on in the real world.

* Product stack seriously needs maturity and infusion of new technology thoughts.
* Limited growth and compensation. One advice - negotiate as much upfront during the offer.
* No information sharing amongst peers

Advice to Senior Management

Get a younger, dynamic workforce and reward your most valuable employees. Please do not take them for granted.

Pros

very friendly and family like env.

Cons

it is little bit small team

Advice to Senior Management

there is no advice

Pros

Gerry Cohen and the senior management team is genuinely interested in their customers' successes. The company rewards those who produce results. It is a great environment to learn and apply leading edge technologies and skills.

Cons

The accounting department is too focused on T&E.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you are doing!

Pros

Friendly environment. Managers and colleagues are easy to talk with. There are many people who have worked 20 or 30 years there. Layoff risk is minimum.

Cons

No bonus or reward based on merit, although the performance rating is excellent. No raise after 4 years of hard working. Because of that, my salary is even lower than new employees. Absolutely nothing beyond base salary.

Advice to Senior Management

The company is a good place for senior employees who want to work there for the rest of life. No advice beyond that.

Pros

A family oriented company that cares about the employees and gives those who want to work hard the opportunity to grow into new roles and responsibilities.

Cons

The company has a lot of long term employees. While this is often a plus, it may be perceived to be a negative by someone looking for more of a technology startup experience.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to recognize that the market is always changing and that the company needs to constantly strive to re-invent itself to stay fresh and relevent.