Survey ResultsSurvey Results

by Leon ChalnickOf

www.AdvantaSolutions.com

Business BackgroundBusiness Background

Allaire indicates poor Q3 resultsAllaire indicates problems result

from:– Transition to multi-product company– Long sales cycles for Spectra– Slowdown in CF sales

Lawsuits ensueSCCFUG members express concern

Survey BackgroundSurvey Background

Intent was to:– Determine how other Allaire users felt about

Allaire’s products/strategies and related technologies

– Provide useful feedback to our members and other interested parties

– Avoid creating opinions I wrote the initial survey and the

SCCFUG board reworked the questions in about 4 iterations

Who Took the Survey?Who Took the Survey?

Invitations were sent to CF-TALK, CF-COMMUNITY, SPECTRA-TALK, JRUN-TALK and the CFUG Managers list

Slant towards ColdFusionSlant towards knowledgeable,

opinionated developers

Executive SummaryExecutive Summary Respondents—largely experienced ColdFusion developers—believe

Allaire can improve its performance in the next year, but the degree of confidence is hardly overwhelming. There is moderate support for an Allaire focus on Java-based tools, though many respondents were unclear on Allaire’s vision and plans along these lines.

While there is very solid support for ColdFusion and JRun as tools that should figure into Allaire’s strategy, there is only weak support for Spectra. In fact, almost a third of the respondents indicated that Spectra should not even be an equal participant in Allaire’s product strategy.

Both COM and EJB appear to play an underwhelming role in developers’ plans for the near future.

Respondent ProfileRespondent Profile

686 respondentsAllaire customer for 2 years 8

monthsAbout ¼ were Allaire partners[continues]

Product UsageProduct Usage96%

17% 13% 19%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

ColdFusion JRun Spectra Other

–128 ‘Other’41 ASP18 Java or JSPPerl / PHP / VB

Respondent OccupationsRespondent Occupations

Corporate37%

Government10%

Independents45%

Other8%

Confidence in AllaireConfidence in Allaire

66% expressed some confidenceOnly 39% agreed ‘strongly’ or

‘completely’Partners expressed confidence at a

slightly lower rate than non-partners (63% compared to 67%)

Support for ProductsSupport for Products

ColdFusion– 90% indicated CF was extremely important

in Allaire’s strategy– While over 95% are using, only 87%

indicated they would definitely be using JRun

– 1/3 felt it was extremely important– 2/3 felt it was at least somewhat important– More people see usage in next 12 months

than using now

Support for Products Support for Products [cont.][cont.]

Spectra– Used by about 13%– About 16% said it is extremely important– However almost 30% said Spectra should

not play as important a role as CF or JRun Less than 3% felt that way about CF

– Only 68 of the 92 who use Spectra said they expect to use it in next 12 months

Allaire’s Java PlansAllaire’s Java Plans

About 50% said that to some degree, they were not clear

Less than 1/3 expressed any degree of clarity

Importance of JavaImportance of Java

Recognition of Java’s importance, but not overwhelming– Over 40% like a focus on Java-based

tools– But over half have no plans for EJB

and less than half indicate plans to use JRun in next 12 months

Importance of COM and EJBImportance of COM and EJB

Only less than 25% plan to use COM

Even less interest (18%) in EJB

Qualitative ResponsesQualitative Responses

177 out of 686. More negative than positive.

Themes:– Focus on CF– Allaire products not stable. Allaire should

focus on fixing bugs and improve docs.– CF ease of use a major benefit– Java probably important but not clear– CF priced too high (only a few said this)

ConclusionsConclusions

1. Allaire and its supporters can take heart that the majority of the respondents expressed some confidence that Allaire can improve its performance.

2. Allaire needs to shore up support for and usage of ColdFusion.

3. Allaire should not look for much growth of Spectra among CF developers. It has not been adopted by many CF developers and does not have a great deal of support among them.

4. Allaire needs to clearly define the role of Java in its future plans and products. Its hardcore developers see Java technology as somewhat important and relevant to them but do not have a clear understanding of the role Java will play in Allaire’s products.