Thread regarding Omnissa layoffs

"The goal was to make the software good enough to get significant market share and sell the business. AirWatch did that."

Here's someone who doesn't have current data. We are a distant third-place player in the UEM market, according to Gartner and IDC. We're way behind Microsoft in market share, and even far from Citrix, which is in second place. Good enough was a clear failure.

Omnissa has the same basic problem as Citrix, this legacy software category is of little interest to CIOs and other senior leaders at our customers. Few people care about a SaaS solutions that are primarily of interest and benefit to folks on our customers IT help desk. Adding more VPs isn't the answer to the core issue; we're of minimal value when budgets are tight and the focus is elsewhere (productivity improving AI products and services).

I think we’re heading into the things you shouldn’t discuss on the internet territory, regardless of the supposed anonymity.

Without discussing internal product, hosting, or other information—if we have anyone to blame for decisions made since February 2014 it would be the owner and operator (VMware).

Whine about choices AirWatch made before the sale all you want, but the quality since then is solely the owning and operating team’s responsibility.

@1v6 well look where that mantra got us. A nearly ten year “modernization” effort that by every measure has been an abysmal failure. A never ending stream of bugs and patches for every release. Pi---d off customers who see the impact of the lack of focus on software quality. That attitude might have worked for the early stages of a startup, but it’s not the right approach for an established company. There are tradeoffs in every decision but quality should not be sacrificed.

@1d8 who are you referring to? Most of AirWatch's leadership has been gone nearly a decade.

Horrible software quality is a subjective term also. A wise AirWatch leader once said don't let perfect stand in the way of good. The goal was to make the software good enough to get significant market share and sell the business. AirWatch did that. What did VMware do with it?

@186 boy what a mistake the Airwatch acquisition was. Horrible software quality with extremely poorly leadership and talent.

@173 Are you describing the in-VMware initial EUC visionary leaders before the AW acquisition? Or the ones in AW itself before VMware acquired it, and came into VMware at that time?

15 years ago, was EUC in VMware more than View Desktop Manager? Then 2012/2013 brought Horizon Workspace that has evolved into Access and Hub. (the one-stop, secure access to apps/desktops — I thought that was visionary when I first saw it)

Then early 2014 (Feb) was the AW acquisition, which brought the MDM that supplanted and superseded the the mobile device mgmt features in the 2013 Horizon Workspace.

“EUC was the same initially (10-15 years ago) and those leaders inspired, had a vision and pushed hard to get there…”

@172 100% accurate. VMware (as it was) was built on disruption at the start, and they evolved through Act 2, hit a few dead ends and then the wheels fell off. EUC was the same initially (10-15 years ago) and those leaders inspired, had a vision and pushed hard to get there. Those key people left and with it the backfill across the company was garbage with people who feared change, didn't know what came next and buried their heads in the sand when it came to product quality, investment, R&D and competition. Its a sad place we find ourselves in as the cause has gone and it is now just an EBITDA first company, run from director level upwards who have been in place too long.

The multiple layers and competence level of our Directors and VPs should worry KKR. Important decisions are being deferred or totally avoided. Also, managers who have been in the same role for 10-15 years fear any change to the way they have always worked. It's not just our software products that are obsolete; our leaders' skills are very outdated.

@d6 the addition of that additional independent board member is an interesting development.

Does Norlin need help to interpret dashboard data? We need leaders, not data analysts.

Every new sales org announcement makes me believe our total collapse is imminent.

The KKR team may have been briefed about new VP roles. However, I wonder if their young finance MBAs can impact Iyer's ongoing mismanagement of our revenue attainment challenges. Given KKR's track record with the BMC software turnaround, this may be what they accept when no other ideas are forthcoming. Sales leader roulett.