RE: Gauntlet post acquisition

["Waszak, Tom" <Tom.Waszak () connect xerox com>]

                Does anyone think that the sales/support staff is
deliberately vague or
                misleading, or simply mis-informed/undertrained?

                I think it is a case of both.  I know for a fact that Bill
Larson told a former regional sales rep for Network General that if she knew
what the 7 layers of the OSI model are that she knew too much.  I know for a
fact that when NAI acquired Network General there was a lot of concern that
Network General would rat on ZAC about its huge network footprint.  I know
that sales staff have been told to promise the world in order to get a sale.
I know that it is next to impossible to get straight and accurate answers on
anything.  (Unless you spend $7,000 for a consultant).  So I think it is a
case of both deliberately vague and undertrained.  I'm often reminded of the
Jerky Boys skit with the memorable b.s. line "Yeah, I got all that S**T
tough guy".   As for support, I believe it is because they are undertrained.
For a short while there was no ZAC support because everyone quit. 


                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Kelly Lucas [mailto:kdlucas () netscape com]
                Sent:   Thursday, July 16, 1998 11:09
                To:     Waszak, Tom
                Cc:     Ferguson, Linwood; firewall-wizards () nfr net
                Subject:        Re: Gauntlet post acquisition

                Tom,

                As a former employee of McAfee, I have an active interest on
what's
                going on with that company.  I find all of these comments
useful.

                I can vouch for the fact that Bill Larson has acquired quite
a few
                companies, and then "stripped" that company of what he
perceived to be
                "fat".  I would guess that he has lost quite a few quality
                developers/support staff, since many individuals are
probably not happy
                with being acquired in the first place.  I haven't been in
that company
                for over two years; hence, I'm not really up-to-date on most
of the
                security acquisitions.

                Sorry about the late post, I've been on vacation for the
last couple of
                weeks.

                Does anyone think that the sales/support staff is
deliberately vague or
                misleading, or simply mis-informed/undertrained?

                kdl
                --
                Kelly D. Lucas              | Netscape Communications
                kdlucas () netscape com          |  Server Test Engineer
                http://people.netscape.com/kdlucas/    |   (650)937-3073
                "All opinions are my own, and not Netscapes"