Vicasso Reviews

Pros

Nicest and friendliest people you will ever meet. They genuinely care for their employees!

Cons

Nothing negative to say, honestly!

Pros

I have been with Vicasso for a good amount of time now and I can say that it is truly a great place to work. The directors of the company really care about the employees and direction of the company. HR is attentive and pays attention to the employees. They put on events throughout the year to build camaraderie even in a predominantly remote environment. The company has great products that helps a lot of companies work more efficiently. The business units are all doing their best to move things forward.

Cons

Sometimes changes can be too frequent. The company makes changes year to year and sometimes even more frequently before adequately collecting enough data to determine if it’s the right course of action or not. There was some big changes as the end of 2022 with some layoffs that affected many people. It was the right business decision, but maybe not handled in the most effective way. There was an element of tone-deafnesses to the situation, even though this was the first time the company had ever been through anything like that, far more planning could have gone into providing clear, consistent, messaging with a plan.

Pros

Great, knowledgeable employees who have each others' backs and want nothing more than to professionally develop each other.

Cons

The executive team was put in a tough place when the owner came back and decided to lay off the Professional Services department. Questions about specifics were deflected and no coherent response was given when asked why the department was no longer profitable. When the layoffs were announced there was no direction given to the department from leadership, we were basically left to our own devices and best judgement on how to deal with clients for weeks while knowing the department was ending. When the official announcement of layoffs was made, there still was no set plan on how to proceed. Horrible display of leadership. They had weeks from the unofficial announcement to the PS department leading up to the official announcement to the entire company.

Pros

Individual contributors are talented professionals. The professional services (PS) department had a strong sense of camaraderie and a genuine pursuit of knowledge as well as the willingness to share it. The apps that Vicasso offers are, for the most part, excellent solutions. Since it is a smaller company, there was a greater chance to make an impact.

Cons

There was a time, during which this review might have looked very differently. But, unfortunately, I can no longer recommend working at Vicasso. The owner/founder has taken matters into his own hands and has essentially either forced everyone else out of the company or into submission. With no forewarning, the founder decided to close the entire professional services department in order to solely focus on selling apps. While this is certainly his prerogative as owner and founder of the company and sometimes a reality of business, the way in which he informed the PS team and managed the transition was abysmal if not outright malicious. The owner was supposed to join the call to relay the message, but made excuses and didn't show up. In the beginning, there was mention of severance, but he ended up retracting that because it would simply take money away from the apps department. The entire leadership team ignored the situation for weeks, leaving the entire PS department in the dark. It is said that the owner essentially had a gag order on the other executives. When the layoffs were to officially be announced during an all-staff meeting, the first 15-20 minutes were spent doing a dog-and-pony-show recap of Dreamforce, which seemed ridiculous considering that half the company was anxiously awaiting any news about being laid off. When we finally started talking about the layoffs, it quickly became clear that the owner had no plan whatsoever of how to manage this transition. The lack of empathy with which the information was conveyed was shocking, especially considering that many employees had been working at Vicasso for many years. Based on this experience, I would recommend being very wary of any promises made by the leadership of this organization. What was once a positive, collaborative, and genuine environment, has turned into a toxic workplace with an owner who is on a power trip.

Pros

The core team I was on was absolutely amazing. Great people and we all had great camaraderie.

Cons

Originally the company culture was great, but then the founder became re-engaged in the daily operations of the business and things turned into an absolute dumpster fire. He made a snap decision to completely dissolve the entire professional services department with absolutely no planning or strategy. Employees had no answers to basic questions about losing their livelihoods and most clients were not even made aware of the decision until less than a month to their services being ceased. The entire situation was handled in the worst possible way and decade long relationships burned overnight. Even those people with 9+ years of dedication to the company got ZERO severance and not even a hint of empathy from the leadership making these decisions. In fact, on several occasions the founder tried to play the victim card, like HE was the one suffering. His ineptitude has been truly shocking.

Pros

Some of the best people you will ever work with. Outside of leadership, the employees are truly a group of smart, innovative and caring people.

Cons

The owner is unpredictable and lacks emotional intelligence. Leadership is incapable and cowers to the owner's demands.

Pros

The people. Some of the best people you would ever want to come across in any situation. Working with a cohesive, hard working and agreeable team was amazing. Even those on other teams were fantastic... for the most part.

Cons

The owner, who is able to unilaterally make decisions regardless of how rash they may or may not be. Hands of executives were tied as they were metaphorically gagged and bound so as to not give any information on the dissolution of half the company. A fifteen year old division was disbanded, which was done as a business decision for the good of the company. When asked for clarification, the owner gave "I don't know." as a response to how the overall process would be handled, as well as to many other important questions. It would appear he did this as his first official order of business after returning to the company from a multi-year sabbatical, which he was asked to take after making vulgar statements on a public forum. Although certain business decisions are difficult and often necessary, one should have a plan as to how to handle employees as well as clients - neither of which were given sufficient information. This hastily made decision also resulted in the botched transfer of clients to another company. Needless to say, everyone affected by this did not have a good time in the final month. Topping all of this off was being offered no severance.

Pros

Amazing group of colleagues; true experts in their field.

Cons

The owner, who had disappeared for a while and left the leadership to the CEO, came back suddenly and furiously and laid off the entire professional services department. There were no previous indications of any reason for this, in fact, there was a surge in hiring and a strong pipeline right before this happened. No severance was given and there was a complete breakdown of communication. Not to mention the unprofessional way of ending work with clients that had been with Vicasso for years. When the team asked how this could have happened, the leadership stumbled and had no coherent response.

Pros

Was an amazing collaborative team that had your back with engaged leadership that cared and invested in the team

Cons

Sometimes a business decision has to be made--in this case, dissolving the 15-year-old professional services (PS) part of the business. The founder (with 100% equity)--who was out-of-the-picture--came out of the woodwork and bulldozed over the existing leadership of the company; drove the decision, communication, and execution of dissolving the PS team--and if you want a case study on how not to do it, note how poorly it was handled and the following failures: • Didn't entrust his own leadership, not allowing the CEO to make and drive decisions • "I can't answer that," was his response when asked why when initially the team was told that they were financially breaking even, and then the decision--six months later--was to dissolve the department due to unprofitability • Complete lack of empathy; he spent an entire all-hands meeting that was about the PS team dissolution, repeatedly focusing on the impact on himself on how much the team was costing him • He repeatedly noted that he "couldn't wait until" the PS team was gone and how excited he was about it • Was not able to 'figure out Zoom' to tell the team--to their faces--about their layoffs • Did not offer any severance, especially for team members that were in the company for more than four years (some were there up to seven years) • Didn't drive or follow through on a cohesive plan to notify and help clients transition • Dropped the ball in partnering with another PS company to explore clients moving to the partner providing employment opportunities for team members in the dissolved team • Did not deliver on the Vicasso Way (29 fundamentals the company holds as core values)--see other concurrent reviews • In the last days before the team was formally dissolved was heard saying that everyone should be able to find a job and if they can't he'd help them--an offer that was too little and too late

Pros

That I found out how bad this company was to work for early on in my tenure, and was able to quickly pivot into another Role shortly thereafter. That I was able to help other people impacted by the terrible decisions made at this company.

Cons

About a month into my tenure, accounting irregularities were identified by the leadership team, and layoffs were announced. These accounting irregularities were not verified by an independent, third-party accounting firm. The decision to make these layoffs came when the business impacted was supposed to be showing steady growth YOY, but were told that they were severely in the red. This company is run by a Founder and Leadership team who is incompetent at best, and heartless at worst. Vicasso leadership showed no empathy or basic human decency for their impacted employees during the transition. Layoffs happen, and while they’re terrible, there’s a human element for how to handle them. None of that was observed by Vicasso. At an all-staff meeting to communicate the announcement, this was the second topic, with the first being a discussion of how a recent trade show went and some of the outcomes from it. Employees subject to the layoff were forced to sit through a PowerPoint deck of photos about how the company did at the trade show and messaging they shared at the conference. After the announcement was made to all-staff, the call abruptly ended and all impacted employees were instructed to join a different line. No severance is being offered to anyone impacted by the layoff. Post layoff announcement messaging included lack of communication to customers for almost two weeks, and no information for employees such as how to return equipment, etc. No severance was given to impacted employees, and it is still up in the air as to whether earned bonuses will be paid out. Customers were left in the lurch, with no explanation other then "I'm sorry..." for how we could help them moving forward. If you are considering a career opportunity here, please consider the leadership team’s hubris and way they treat their employees. I can only hope that this review gives you pause for considering a career with a company that has no cause for concern over how they impact employee’s lives, their families, and their careers.