The OpenEdge Hive

Consultants answered questions about his/her participation in email and forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

Do Consultants’ customers’ IT employees subscribe to forums?

Of the Participating Consultants,
38% of respondents answered customers’ usage of PSDN;
53% of respondents answered customers’ usage of PEG;
20% of respondents answered customers’ usage of ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants are more confident of their customers’ participation with PEG than PSDN forums. Europeans have higher participation in PSDN than PEG. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

These are the most interesting remarks about customers’ IT employees subscribing to various forums:

• It’s hard to tell, they don’t post.
• People are aware of it; none is active.
• Less than none, because the posts are all in English.
• None of my customers has an IT department.
• 10 years ago 100% of my customers subscribed to PEG, now I’ve no idea.
• Probably zero—they wouldn’t understand what they see; wouldn’t see value of them.
• I’ve always encouraged them as a source to go to for help with the small stuff, so they don’t call me.

Do Consultants’ prospects’ IT employees subscribe to forums?

Of the Participating Consultants,
31% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PSDN;
45% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PEG;
18% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants are also more confident of their prospective customers’ participation with PEG than PSDN forums. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

These are the most interesting remarks about prospective customers’ IT employees subscribing to various forums:

• I hope that lots do, but I don’t know really.
• 10 years ago 80% of my prospective customers subscribed to PEG, now I’ve no idea.
• I’m likely to hear about it more with new customers; they'll say that they've read a lot of my posts.
• No idea, I’ve never been to that site.

How many forum viewers are your potential customer?

Of the Participating Consultants,
35% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PSDN;
45% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PEG;
20% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants are more confident that forums are filled with potential customers. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks about forums as a venue for potential customers:

• No idea. How many subscribers are there?
• Very many because of our toolset. There’s a huge potential in the Progress community for our tools. Marketing is of course abusing the protocol of the PEG, but if a question is asked, one can give a solution that includes making remarks about our tools, and people who are interested will see it.
• Many could be, but it’s unlikely. There are lots of low end developers and consultants who aren't likely to ask for help. The interaction is nice though.
• Prospective customers would be higher on PSDN than PEG, for sure.
• Slightly more than none, but certainly not very many.
• Only Greg knows; he’s worse than PSC for hiding information from the community.
• I don't know, I’ve never thought about PEG in a marketing aspect. I met another PEG contributor who's local and developed a relationship, but that's only once. I suppose that maybe 20% of PEG subscribers might have jobs which I could do. No data has ever been released on the subscribers, more's the pity.
• Only those in my country. Since Greg has never disclosed anything about membership, it's hard to guess.
• Sure there are some, but that’s not why I go to PEG..

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