However, the truth has it’s rights: Having isolated salespeople dotted around the globe, and working out of their kitchen does not make an organization more “international”. The expertise of the people and the quality of the service will alsways prevail – no matter where they’re based.

Also, to say that “most europeans” would call Peopleclick’s fully serviced office in London with 25 dedicated developers, engineers and support helpdesk professionals inadequate is simply not true. On the other hand, it is a fact most companies in Europe will be very reluctant to have their data hosted in Krakow, Poland (Mr.Ted’s main service and support hub); as performance and service quality are questioned, and as doubts exist over levels of data protection.

Not that this would matter much to the Chinese government, and the rather unsophisticated nature of the chinese market and typical e-recruitment requirements in he territory seem to have created an opportunity for Mr. Ted’s offering, which does not seem very competitive in more demanding and complex multinational situations. The fact that longstanding European Mr. Ted clients have recently left them in favour of more comprehensive and mature product offerings seems to suggest their window of opportunity is now facing East.

However, even in a less mature market, clients can be unforgiving and quality issues will still haunt you – no matter how far east you go. The extreme disappointment with Mr. Ted’s poor quality implementations, support and system performance, has already encouraged at least one of their large, longstanding chinese clients to turn to Peopleclick. As it turns out, it is possible to know where China is; even from London or Brussels!!

Your points in “The Bad News” are all valid, but that won’t stop potential customers making expensive buying mistakes on the salesman’s promise that they can be “seamlessly integrated”. It hasn’t stopped Taleo converting Vurv customers to Taleo despite those two systems being more chalk and cheese than Peopleclick and Authoria. More unhappy customers is the prediction.

Your point about Peopleclick making Authoria more international doesn’t really wash: outside of the USA, P’click have two – very small – offices, one in London and the other in Brussels. Most Europeans say that’s inadequate, especially when you find out where the support actually comes from. And what about the rest of the world? Do they know where China is?

So, Peopleclick and Authoria clients will come as usual almost 100% from US-based buyers. Employer decision makers outside the USA should look to other best of breed suppliers like the one chosen by the world’s biggest employer, the Chinese Government.
http://www.mrted.com/news.php3?id_breve=101

Go on, people, disagree with me at c.fpayne@mrted.com !