Zi Reviews in Calgary, AB Area

Pros

Technically the products are interesting to work with and lead the market. Get to play with the latest cellphones. Nice mix of cultures.

Cons

Never enough time/money to get things done properly. Being sued by the competition all the time if a real pain in the a*$.

Advice to Senior Management

Back to basics with delivering quality software and diversify sales strategy to take risk away from the one big project.

Pros

-- Small company (~75 employees) means "everybody knows everybody"; better personal relationships with the broader team.
  -- Ability to learn cutting-edge technologies in the growing area of mobile s/w development.
  -- Flexible working hours.

Cons

-- Lack of customers for newer product lines, due to poor sales/marketing department.
  -- Constantly changing direction from upper management caused frustration in technical teams, who were unable to concentrate and/or complete projects to the required level of quality.
  -- On-going financial problems which ultimately led to Zi being acquired by Nuance in April 2009, at which time approximately 90% of Zi employees were laid off.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't treat the company as you personal bank account.

Pros

They have a very flexible work environment with people working from different locations . Good group of people to work with.

Cons

Constantly changing directions, no system architects. Insist in using older technologies and management practices. Could definitely use an upgrading of design tools and workflow.
Company has long term plan but fails to execute anything beyond three months out. Could definitely use better collaboration tools but company is like a sleeping elephant when adopting new tools just now coming upon using pen and paper.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire a system architect, need better engineering leadership with input from sales and marketing. There is a definite lack of input into engineering from marketing no long term vision.