Recently, a vendor posted a story about a troubled implementation and named rfxcel as the source of the problem. Although the tactic struck me as unprofessional, it also indicated that our continued wins were clearly impacting this vendor’s expansion plans. Since rfxcel does not engage in this type of “mud-slinging”, I decided to not rebut the posting and chose to continue to compete on our merits.
Unfortunately, the vendor has taken this to a new level and they are now emailing this story to our customers in an attempt to discredit rfxcel. This new marketing campaign crosses the line of professional behavior. In light of the vendor’s new marketing effort, I feel that it is important for rfxcel to set the record straight.
No customer is named in the vendor’s posting, and we have no idea who that customer could be as none of our customers experienced all of the problems cited in the posting. As such, I cannot provide a rebuttal regarding all the points raised in the post, except to clarify a glaring issue; inference of security issues in our infrastructure is false. rfxcel’s cloud solution has always been secure and remains secure today. We maintain the highest industry recommended security measures and perform continuous 3rd party audits of our systems. As a result, our systems have remained secured and we have never experienced a breach.
In addition to new customers that we have won when competing against this vendor, more than 10 customers have recently switched from this vendor to rfxcel. These customers include global manufacturers, distributors and dispensers of various sizes. The most common reasons these companies give for switching over are: The vendor’s frequent updates kept “breaking” the system; Inability to get the vendor’s attention to help configure & integrate with partners; Hidden costs in terms of additional company resources and upcharges for services/features.
Among this growing list of switched customers is one of the largest US pharmacies who switched because the vendor’s solution could not process the large volumes required by this pharmacy. This list also includes a manufacturing customer who switched from rfxcel to this vendor because of the vendor’s promise of lower prices – this customer recently re-signed with rfxcel after realizing that the lower prices came with lower levels of service and hidden upcharges.
Finally, I am reminded of a humorous twist to the Golden Rule that best illustrates the differences between our two companies, “Whoever makes the gold, makes the rules.”
Unlike this vendor, our growth is fueled by our customers and not by investment bankers. rfxcel has developed and run a profitable business for over 10 years now. Even with our recent investment, customers are the primary source of our cash flow. This places customers at the center of our growth strategy. rfxcel’s priorities and focus have always been based on our customer needs and not on the needs of investors who are driven by quick returns. This is an important distinction that results in two very different business models.
PRIORITIES – our focus on customers permeates everything we do. It guides how we reinvest our revenue; more than 50% is reinvested into our Engineering and Customer Success organizations which directly impact our customers. We do not prioritize our spending on large Sales/Marketing teams and glitzy, self-promoting events.
CONTROL – our solution provides our customers with their own private instance of our software instead of a common copy that is shared with other companies. We frankly don’t understand how a system could be validated and stay validated with any other approach. Our customers decide to upgrade when it is convenient for them instead of getting continuous upgrades based on the vendor’s schedule which can be destabilizing, especially in a validated manufacturing environment.
SERVICE – rfxcel provides a full service implementation. We do the heavy lifting for our customer and ensure a consistent end-to-end experience. We ensure that our customers are connected to their partners and we run a series of data validations based on our customers’ requirements to ensure that everything works properly. Our services are fixed price to shift financial risk away from our customers. In contrast, this vendor likes to tout their connections but leave their customers with a portal to complete the partner integration work themselves.
rfxcel is a fast growing company in a rapidly evolving business environment. We understand that problems will occur but we remain fully committed to the success or our customers. We live by the old fashioned motto, “The customer is king.” It is not a cliché or convenient tag line. It is how we conduct business.
For organizations that need a serialization, traceability or compliance solutions, I look forward to the opportunity to present our solution to you in the future. For our existing customers, I want to extend a huge “Thank YOU”. rfxcel remains fully committed to your success. We are accountable to you, not the investment bankers. Without you, there would be no rfxcel.
Glenn Abood
CEO and founder
To learn more contact us here.
