119684 Resource 102302 102466 102466 1143057307539 1146013856914 Controlled Is There A Place for FAS in the Google Universe?

Planet FAS is cooling off.

I have written in the past about FindAccountingSoftware.com. FAS is an online portal that serves businesses interested in looking at several options for a new accounting package. FAS does not exist without the Internet and the search engine; ironically, the question posed is can FAS exist with the Internet and the search engine? The answer is interesting for both FAS and the Internet as a whole. First, for FAS the question is why do they matter? Let me give you my perspective as a vendor. The way FAS works is that it is absolutely free for those who search. For participating vendors they must first pony up a fairly thick wad of cash for the privilege of being listed on the site and then again for being able to bid on leads. Each lead costs between $10 and $40 bucks. Companies that list on the site are kept anonymous until you actually win the bid. Also, only a small amount of the company's information is released during bidding in order to maximize the number of vendors who bid. Now, you might be thinking that this is a bit of a rigged deal here, and you would be right. But to find good leads, companies actually interested in finding software and a partner to implement it, we and many others were willing to try this deal. Results? Well I cannot lie. They have not been impressive. There are a lot of people who enter their information on the portal but for what reason I cannot say. Frankly I think that most have no intention of changing software and FAS seems like the easiest way to march to the boss's drum. Enter a few quick lines into FAS and the search is basically over for the buyer. The hunt is now on and the buyer can be passive the rest of the way. Take a few phone calls, see a demo or two. It's not like they have to read for hours on end and put together a report on the options. Supposedly FAS does this for them. The other problem is that the information on FAS is haphazard at best and almost never aligns with reality. Buyers go through a short interview process that asks really penetrating questions like how many purchase orders do they generate a month, or A/P checks? Is this important? Well, not nearly as important as questions about the business model and to what degree they want industry vertical software. But information like this would stop some vendors from bidding. But the biggest problem is Google. Why would I want to bother with FAS when I can use Google to find a host of software vendors and their resellers online. I can visit websites and read about several different products and how they might fit my business. In many cases by the time I connect with a lead for which I paid dearly on FAS they have already been to NetSuite's website. That's not good for a reseller. When companies are really interested in finding a software option that meets their needs they turn to Google, not FAS. The difference between a lead found via Google AdWords and FAS couldn't be greater. FAS leads are normally employees asked by their boss to take a look around. Adwords leads are normally the boss who is having a look around. When the boss does the search, it's a serious search. FAS is free, too free. It costs nothing for the buyer in time, energy or cash and as a result manages to find a few unqualified leads. Google Adwords require energy and time. The buyer has a stake and as a result the lead is qualified in the most important way - interest. FAS is clever in the way that it has positioned itself in the middle between buyers and sellers. But a really telling point is that I have never had a visitor to this blog or to my website from the links that are listed on FAS. That's how little interest the buyers on FAS have in finding software and consulting. What's it mean for the Internet. It means that though the Internet tries to drive down prices everywhere, no price is no good, either. Even a free search engine, for the searcher, cannot be entirely free. It must engage their time and energy. The idea that many would like to have us believe, that it only works on the Internet if its free and really easy and really no hassle, is, in the end, the idea that makes a lot of what's on the Internet useless. As an old boss used to say, 'put some skin in the game' and, I'll add, make sure that the prospect puts some skin in, too. 10 application/xml false accounting software findaccountingsoftware.com google adwords internet portal search engines Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; T312461; YPC 3.0.1; (R1 1.5); .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 tfoydel false true false false true 205861 false false true false false false true 102302 blog blogsite/SightLines/web