Still Rockin' After All These Years: Why Monarch Remains Successful
Posted September 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 AM by Mike Urbonas
[IMG]http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Monarch-Blog-Raving-Fans.jpg[/IMG]
Monarch (for DOS!) first hit the market in early 1991, on a 5 1/4" floppy disk, plus a 3 1/2" diskette for those PC users on the cutting edge of technology! Who would have imagined, seventeen years later, Monarch is not only still 'alive,' but still thriving?
Certainly one reason is traditional BI solutions remain very complex for non-technical workers and managers to use in a genuine self-service manner. But why does Monarch in particular remain successful? The answer lies within a wise posting on one of the best blogs ever written: the [URL="http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/"]"Creating Passionate Users" blog [/URL]by programming book author Kathy Sierra.
Although Sierra is no longer writing new content for her blog, thankfully she has kept its entire December 2004 to April 2007 run available online. It is a treasure trove of excellent advice on how software developers can develop and market solutions that generate "raving fans," written in a very lively, colloquial, slang tone -- some of which is edited here ;) -- like a modern-day Dale Carnegie.
The particular "Creating Passionate Users" blog posting related to our discussion [URL="http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/10/getting_users_p.html"]focuses on the drop-dead critical attributes a software application must offer: [/URL]
First, the software must enable the new user to get to a minimum threshold of competence, at which the user achieves a desired level of success with the software, and enable the user to get there quickly.
Next, for the software to endure for a long period of time, the next level, that is, going from 'competent' (as Sierra writes, users here stop hating the software and decide it is helpful) to 'passionate' (when these users realize, "Wow, I am really solving some serious problems with this software! I love it! I rock!").
Quoting Kathy Sierra:
[QUOTE]For most of us, our user wants to use our tools (software, books, sermons, screwdrivers, saddle, music) to do something else ([solve business problems], learn, find inspiration, build a deck, ride a horse, dance). So we try to think about the thing they want to do, and how quickly we can get them through those two thresholds:
1) …The point at which they stop hating you (your company), the activity itself, or their complete inability to do anything useful.
2) The passion threshold: The point at which they start feeling like they [are really, really succeeding ;) ]. While passion is not a guarantee at this point, the chances of someone becoming passionate before this are slim.[/QUOTE]
We at Datawatch are proud and thankful that Monarch and the family of Monarch-powered enterprise solutions do indeed have passionate users, raving fans of our solutions.
It is in no small part because Monarch delivers on its promise of customized business intelligence that anyone can use. Stories of new Monarch users solving a vexing data problem with their brand new copy of Monarch received the same day abound.
It is in no small part because Monarch training and documentation enable new users to focus on important Monarch tasks, step by step: creating a model, then working with the data, analyzing/customizing/summarizing the data, exporting it to Excel, etc.
The rapid movement from new software user to successful problem solver helps explain the success of new Monarch Data Pump customers like World Vision, and brand new Monarch BI Server user St. Joseph Medical Center.
Do you feel Kathy Sierra's blog entry describes your experience with Monarch or any of the Monarch-powered family of BI solutions? Do you feel you went quickly from new Monarch user to 'competent' and then 'passionate' quickly? We'd love to hear from you! Please post a reply or use the Contact Us option at the bottom of the page here on the Monarch forums.
Monarch (for DOS!) first hit the market in early 1991, on a 5 1/4" floppy disk, plus a 3 1/2" diskette for those PC users on the cutting edge of technology! Who would have imagined, seventeen years later, Monarch is not only still 'alive,' but still thriving?
Certainly one reason is traditional BI solutions remain very complex for non-technical workers and managers to use in a genuine self-service manner. But why does Monarch in particular remain successful? The answer lies within a wise posting on one of the best blogs ever written: the [URL="http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/"]"Creating Passionate Users" blog [/URL]by programming book author Kathy Sierra.
Although Sierra is no longer writing new content for her blog, thankfully she has kept its entire December 2004 to April 2007 run available online. It is a treasure trove of excellent advice on how software developers can develop and market solutions that generate "raving fans," written in a very lively, colloquial, slang tone -- some of which is edited here ;) -- like a modern-day Dale Carnegie.
The particular "Creating Passionate Users" blog posting related to our discussion [URL="http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/10/getting_users_p.html"]focuses on the drop-dead critical attributes a software application must offer: [/URL]
First, the software must enable the new user to get to a minimum threshold of competence, at which the user achieves a desired level of success with the software, and enable the user to get there quickly.
Next, for the software to endure for a long period of time, the next level, that is, going from 'competent' (as Sierra writes, users here stop hating the software and decide it is helpful) to 'passionate' (when these users realize, "Wow, I am really solving some serious problems with this software! I love it! I rock!").
Quoting Kathy Sierra:
[QUOTE]For most of us, our user wants to use our tools (software, books, sermons, screwdrivers, saddle, music) to do something else ([solve business problems], learn, find inspiration, build a deck, ride a horse, dance). So we try to think about the thing they want to do, and how quickly we can get them through those two thresholds:
1) …The point at which they stop hating you (your company), the activity itself, or their complete inability to do anything useful.
2) The passion threshold: The point at which they start feeling like they [are really, really succeeding ;) ]. While passion is not a guarantee at this point, the chances of someone becoming passionate before this are slim.[/QUOTE]
We at Datawatch are proud and thankful that Monarch and the family of Monarch-powered enterprise solutions do indeed have passionate users, raving fans of our solutions.
It is in no small part because Monarch delivers on its promise of customized business intelligence that anyone can use. Stories of new Monarch users solving a vexing data problem with their brand new copy of Monarch received the same day abound.
It is in no small part because Monarch training and documentation enable new users to focus on important Monarch tasks, step by step: creating a model, then working with the data, analyzing/customizing/summarizing the data, exporting it to Excel, etc.
The rapid movement from new software user to successful problem solver helps explain the success of new Monarch Data Pump customers like World Vision, and brand new Monarch BI Server user St. Joseph Medical Center.
Do you feel Kathy Sierra's blog entry describes your experience with Monarch or any of the Monarch-powered family of BI solutions? Do you feel you went quickly from new Monarch user to 'competent' and then 'passionate' quickly? We'd love to hear from you! Please post a reply or use the Contact Us option at the bottom of the page here on the Monarch forums.
Total Comments 3
Comments
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I discovered Kathy's blog some time ago. It's a real shame that events precluded her from continuing with it.
As to the question of passion for the product, not only do I agree with the overall sentiment in your piece Mike, but I wrote a similarly themed post as one of the first publications on my site almost a year ago. I stand by what I wrote. I couldn't do what I do, enjoyably or otherwise, without Monarch. Every single day it not only saves me, but enables and empowers me, and I'm not sure how many other products, be they software or otherwise, about which I can say the same thing. And for as long as I can do it, I'll continue to do my best to attempt to instill that same passion into others who can reap the same benefits and more by simply adopting your software. Data Kruncher |
Posted September 23rd, 2008 at 05:29 PM by Data Kruncher
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Back in 2003 I was interviewed by Mike Urbonas for an article in the Monarch News Letter. My comments then still ring true now, Monarch is a great product, it does the job no matter how much you throw at it and it is inexpensive.
There is not much else you can ask from a product, except Monrach goes one better with the Forum. I have got many tips from the forum and hopefully helped a few who were struggling with a problem. There is still one problem with Monarch that I have aleady passed on to Mike and he did promise to look at it in a future release, it still does not make the tea. Keep on doing what you are doing, it works. Nigel |
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Posted September 24th, 2008 at 03:55 AM by Nigel Winton
Updated September 24th, 2008 at 05:05 AM by Nigel Winton |
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At my fingertips, I can grab
Version 2 (DOS - 3 1/2" disk) Versions 1 - 4 (Windows 3 1/2" disks) Versions 5 - 9 (Windows CDs)  |
Posted October 22nd, 2008 at 02:41 PM by Nick Osdale-Popa
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Recent Blog Entries by Mike Urbonas
- The Need for Wisdom: A TED Talk by Barry Schwartz (March 30th, 2009)
- Monarch: A Business Intelligence Silver Bullet...? (February 3rd, 2009)
- Surprise! A New Blog Post... (February 3rd, 2009)
- Introducing MonarchTV on the Monarch Blog (October 29th, 2008)
- Meet Joe Monarch, and WOW, is he Happy! But What Exactly is He Saying? (October 29th, 2008)
