Earlier this week someone commented on a post on this blog that they had been blocked from getting XchangeIT invoices by their software company because they had decided to not take up software support coverage.
It frustrates me that a newsagency software would block a newsagent from accessing business-critical magazine invoice data.
The software company involved should not block access. XchangeIT should not allow it to happen.
If a newsagent has software that meets XchangeIT standards they ought to be able to load data from any external source. If they need support from their software company to address any issue and are not covered by support then, by all means, charge them. But to charge just to get the data – this is poor behaviour that reflects badly on all software companies.
Yes I am conflicted, I own Tower Systems. I’m lucky in that our market share of 1,800 newsagents positions us to not have to rely on pressuring newsagents by blocking XchangeIT access to those who do not maintain software support. But we created our position over many years.
Newsagents have enough challenges in their businesses. They should not be forced to pay for a software support service if they don’t want it.
Software companies should rely on their customer loving their software and their support enough to keep them in business.