Edu1world Demystifies Technology Vendor Ratings with New Service

Edu1world Demystifies Technology Vendor Ratings with New Service

Edu1world (http://bit.ly/2Bivax) is launching a new Vendor Product Rating Tool on edu1world.org. They are taking the mystery out of how vendor products are rated by using institution technology profiles and edu1world member data to design and disseminate targeted user ratings reviews. Aggregate data will be compiled by job title and published for use by both higher education technology decisions makers and higher education technology vendors. The new initiative fulfills on the edu1world mission to build transparency between technology vendors and educational institutions for the benefit of all.

Irvington, VA (PRWEB) October 30, 2009 -- If edu1world has any say about it, satisfying your customers will soon take priority over satisfying industry analysts.

Edu1world (http://bit.ly/2Bivax) announced today the launch of a new Vendor Product Rating Tool on the edu1world.org website. The new feature is designed to fulfill on the edu1world mission to bring technology vendors closer to their customers, and to promote transparency in the vendor selection process. What makes this tool extremely useful and powerful is that edu1world is taking the mystery out of how vendor products are rated by soliciting anonymous feedback from thousands of verified end users instead of relying on industry analysts for technology ratings.

How does it work? Edu1world is interfacing their edu1world Institution Technology Profile Database (http://bit.ly/1e7PV3) -- comprised of current technology profiles for over 4,600 higher education institutions worldwide -- with edu1world Member Profile Data on over 11,000 higher education employees. This allows them to poll only those employees whose institutions use the products being rated and whose job titles relate to the questions at hand. Edu1world Technology Profile data is licensed from The Tambellini Group (http://bit.ly/hTItD), which independently verifies the information, minimizing the possibility that responders are not using the product being rated.

No one has ever asked for anonymous end-user input on these products on this scale before. Edu1world is asking the thousands of people who depend on these systems how they really feel. A CIO will provide distinct feedback from the technical support person who maintains the system, the finance manager who paid for it, or an end user in the student services office who uses it every day to get her job done. Therefore, edu1world will present different sets of questions to different types of users, based on job title. The questions are evenly weighted and specifically designed to reflect what is important to each person given their role at the college or university.

The edu1world product rating methodology is completely transparent, simple, and straightforward. There are no complex methodologies, no hidden or proprietary formulas.

Responders will use a 5 star rating system to answer product-specific questions. Responses are anonymous, and only aggregate data will be collected and published. Upon completion of the rating questions, a responder can return to a summary page and see the aggregated data compiled to date for the product that he or she rated. Institutions will not automatically see how the ratings for other products compare. However, customized product comparison reports will be available for colleges and universities after a rating cycle is closed.

The inaugural product rating will focus on Student Information Systems. Every edu1world user whose institution has provided information to edu1world on their student information system and whose job is related to the purchase, maintenance or use of the system will be invited to respond.

Higher education institution employees who are not current members need only register for edu1world membership (http://bit.ly/MAt5J) to be eligible to respond to questions about the products they use. Edu1world is free to employees of every college and university in the world.

Edu1world plans to use the new tool to collect higher education market intelligence on Finance Products, HRMS, CRM, Business Intelligence, Learning Management, and much more. The tool can also be used by a single institution or private edu1world community to compile user ratings.

Edu1world founders Vicki Tambellini (http://bit.ly/1Npkab), CEO, and Liz Dietz (http://bit.ly/edu1worldteam), General Manager, believe that this new feature will be embraced not only by their higher education members but by their technology vendor members as well.

Says Dietz, “In the 25 years that I have been working with higher education technology -- 10 years spent in higher education and 15 as a vendor building and delivering technology for higher education -- I have always felt the gap between what technology users actually thought about their vendor products and the information that was publicly and readily available. As a vendor, we provided customer success stories, case studies and customer references during the sales cycle, but I know of no vendor that can actually tell you what each of their customers, by job category, has to say about their products. We have now taken the magic out of how products are rated. This is the fulfillment of our vision for vendor transparency.”

Dietz and Tambellini believe that transparency is good for everyone – technology decision makers, technicians, users and vendors. Higher education CIOs and other employees will be empowered in the product selection process as well as the aftermath. Vendors will be able to see where they stand against customer expectations – where they excel and where they fall short – and they will have the opportunity to increase their responsiveness to customer feedback.

According to Tambellini, “We are leveraging the wisdom of the crowd for the good of all. We are providing the higher education community with a way to communicate openly with technology vendors, and we are bringing vendors closer to their customers so they can hear in an unbiased fashion what their strengths and opportunities are.”

Vendors are unable to view vendor and product results on the site. Vendors wishing to learn more about how products are rated may contact The Tambellini Group for custom reports. User privacy is protected on edu1world and in no case will user information be shared.

The inaugural ratings campaign will be launched in November, and will appear as an option for higher education members on edu1world.org. Edu1world is encouraging current users to make sure that their Institution Data Profiles (http://bit.ly/1e7PV3) are complete and list all of the products currently in use and that their personal data profiles are accurate as to institution and job title. Non-members wishing to participate in the ratings process can register at any time free of charge (http://bit.ly/MAt5J) on edu1world.org.

Edu1world members log onto the site to share lessons learned, research best practices and vendor solutions, learn about technology trends, and access the expert content they need to succeed. Vendors are encouraged to join edu1world and to promote the site to their higher education customers so that they can participate in the ratings process.

For additional information on edu1world, please contact Vicki Tambellini.

About edu1world

Edu1world LLC (http://bit.ly/2Bivax) is a Web 2.0 resource and expert network exclusively for higher education CIO’s, professionals, faculty, associations, and vendors who develop, support and work with technology solutions. It is a community where members from around the world share lessons learned, research best practices and vendor solutions, learn about technology trends, and access the expert content they need to succeed. The edu1world mission is to deliver a state of the art web 2.0 SaaS application that builds transparency between technology vendors and educational institutions and unites the vendor community with the education industry for the benefit of all.

Edu1world is a project of The Tambellini Group (http://bit.ly/hTItD), a consultancy providing trusted market insights through innovative tools, high-quality research and industry expertise that minimizes the risks associated with technology purchase decisions, improves vendor-customer relationships, and enables breakthrough results for decision makers who work in or serve the education, government and not-for-profit markets. The Tambellini Group, founded and led by Vicki Tambellini, is headquartered in Irvington, Virginia.

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Contact Information Vicki Tambellini

edu1world LLC

http://www.edu1world.org

804-438-9393