ScanSafe Reviews

Pros

- Helpful colleagues
- Technically strong team

Cons

- Poor Documentation and
- Systematically slow

Advice to Senior Management

- Streamline processes
- Remove system dependency

Pros

Exciting industry, good social life

Cons

Manager simply not interested in managing his team, I spent 2 months requesting clarification on my role, the least you can expect is to have your role clearly defined when you start a job. I never got it, in the end he asked me 'so did you clarify your role with so and so?' I wanted to say 'no you'll find that it's a manager's role to clarify a new employee's role'.

Was promised a month of training on all their products, got 2 weeks of patchy training on one product from another employee who whined and moaned about having to train me while having to carry on doing his job.

Was thrown in the deep end, 'sink or swim' culture and after 2 months of sinking big time, totally out of my depth, I decided to call it a day.

Only 21 days annual leave for a company that's doing so well

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure your managers are there to manage people, not there simply for the salary and the prestige.
Get clearly defined roles that are clearly communicated to new employees.

And do not lie at interviews: 3 people at my interviews lied about the nature of the role, 'travel abroad' was the carrot on the stick for that job when it's all desk based. After half a day there it was clear that there was no travelling involved in my role

Pros

Responsibility is yours, positive reinforcement from management, and the feeling that you are personally contributing to the success of the company.

With a flat corporate structure, there is no elitism in this organization.

Cons

Growing pains as the company takes on more staff and new corporate processes must be put in place.

If you are not willing to take ownership of projects or need micromanagement, this is not the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to provide positive reinforcement for jobs well done and foster more communication between departments.

Pros

- Good to be part of a growing company
- The SaaS industry is an exploding market - ScanSafe pioneered it
- ScanSafe view the employees as part of a team and success is rewarded with praise and public recognition
- Good team spirit in the office
- Encourages innovation and input
- Management team are approachable and experts in their area
- Great yearly company conference in different locations e.g. Las Vegas

Cons

- It's trying to transition into a large company - might experience teething problems
- Could make staff incentives and benefits better

Advice to Senior Management

- Don't distance yourselves from the rest of the employees as we grow into a bigger company; remain approachable
- Continue to give public praise - you probably don't realise but it makes a big difference to the motivation of the staff
- Keep encouraging innovation - innovation comes from all levels of an organisation - don't forget this or we will lose our leading position

Pros

Working for a security company is beneficial these days. They have excellent partners (e.g. AT&T, Sprint and Google); however, it won;t be long before folks realize that the performance is not there for enterprise accounts and the SaaS security model... at least with ScanSafe.

Cons

Senior management does not have a clue and publicly humiliates subordiantes in front of peers and partners. Working diligently will get you no where. It's more about sounding confident than being honest. The president in the US believes he is the only one that can sell. They'll take large accounts away from PMs before they close and call them house accounts so they do not have to pay the PM on them. The president in the US sounds like a used car salesman. There is no accountability for anyone in the organization except for the sales organization. The pre-sales team decides what is important to work on. Support never answers the phone, no do they ever get back to customers or prospects, unless specifically told by the president. They have no accountability if accounts are lost due to support engagement within the sale.

Advice to Senior Management

To work as a team and not always try to scam people... work together. It does not have to be a good cop - bad cop scenario all the time. Listen and stop sounding like a used car salesman. Stop taking away your PM's clout in front of the partner, but then scold them for not having any clout. It takes a POM a year to gain the clout of the partner sales teams and 1 conversation for you to take it away and degrade them.

Pros

Web Security is hot and top of mind right now.

Cons

Poor communication. Unethical issues make you feel dirty. Super crap benefits. No real leadership or management.
Expect every decision you make to be ignored or overruled by a founder who "knows better" than you do.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more. Pout less. Ease up on the "old boy's club" mentality in the office. That banker stuff doesn't fly in high tech.

Pros

The web security market is booming.

Cons

The management team is arrogant and incompetent and secretive.

Advice to Senior Management

Grow up. Understand that you don't know everything. Pay the commission that you say you will pay. Ripping off your own sales reps is counterproductive and unethical and just lame.