Goodbye Moto: How Chicago's Greatest Tech Company Fell To Earth
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Re: Goodbye Moto: How Chicago's Greatest Tech Company Fell To Earth
Wow, passing this on to co-workers. I remember many of the high points and their low point recently too. Thank you for sharing this.
Re: Goodbye Moto: How Chicago's Greatest Tech Company Fell To Earth
The poor performance today of Motorola can be summed up in a few points. First is the issue of poor management that doesn't seem to have a clue how to treat customers and what the market is looking for today.
The second point is that they feel they can bully their way through negotiations on supplying a new radio system to a customer. When put up against their competition in a hand to hand race to see who can supply the best radio system for the lowest cost, the customer gets wined and dined and fed a line by Motorola today.
Third, have you seen some of the poor over site that Motorola provides on the implementation of construction? In many cases, there is no Motorola staff on site while the work is going on. If they are pouring a foundation for a guyed tower anchor, the drawing says all steel shall be 3 inches away from the dirt. The steel is actually laying in the dirt and not supported by bricks off the dirt. It gets brought up to the foreman of the work crew and they blow it off. Pour the concrete anyway. So now you have an anchor that will rust out and fail in about 5 to 7 years and the tower will come down. Is this the type of work you expect from a company that you are paying top dollar to for a radio new system?
The values that Motorola had many years back don't exist today. You would expect better, but get worse. These comments are not speculation, but come from first hand, on site, being there while these kind of things are going on. If you have any background in radio systems and construction, your not welcome on the job sites. Your tagged as being a problem to Motorola and they don't want you around, going back to the customer to report what kind of work is being done.
Wake up people, get your head out of the sand. Motorola can do a good job, but it takes considerable effort and you have to be on their case all the time. Short cuts are becoming more the norm rather than an exception. Someone knowledgeable needs to be watching the work being done all the time. Good bidding practices need to be followed to get the best price for the work. Don't let the vendor suggest or write anything to do with an RFQ or specs for a job. You can end up going to jail over that.
With all this said, don't get me wrong. I like Motorola equipment, I like their system planning for the most part. I own a bunch of Motorola radio equipment I have purchased used over the years. It's just the company's way of doing things to go after customers, they way they now treat their radio service shops and the run around you get all the time. They are now trying to shorten the service life of their products to sell more high priced products. The firmware in their radios is not well tested before it gets released to the field. They work on the idea that let the people in the field find the bugs. Plus some of the firmware upgrades have actually taken features away from the radios that were there before the new release came out.
Ask yourself, is this the way a company should function to keep it's customers happy? Even the federal government agencies are starting to look at the product, the support and the cost of radios they are buying from Motorola.
The second point is that they feel they can bully their way through negotiations on supplying a new radio system to a customer. When put up against their competition in a hand to hand race to see who can supply the best radio system for the lowest cost, the customer gets wined and dined and fed a line by Motorola today.
Third, have you seen some of the poor over site that Motorola provides on the implementation of construction? In many cases, there is no Motorola staff on site while the work is going on. If they are pouring a foundation for a guyed tower anchor, the drawing says all steel shall be 3 inches away from the dirt. The steel is actually laying in the dirt and not supported by bricks off the dirt. It gets brought up to the foreman of the work crew and they blow it off. Pour the concrete anyway. So now you have an anchor that will rust out and fail in about 5 to 7 years and the tower will come down. Is this the type of work you expect from a company that you are paying top dollar to for a radio new system?
The values that Motorola had many years back don't exist today. You would expect better, but get worse. These comments are not speculation, but come from first hand, on site, being there while these kind of things are going on. If you have any background in radio systems and construction, your not welcome on the job sites. Your tagged as being a problem to Motorola and they don't want you around, going back to the customer to report what kind of work is being done.
Wake up people, get your head out of the sand. Motorola can do a good job, but it takes considerable effort and you have to be on their case all the time. Short cuts are becoming more the norm rather than an exception. Someone knowledgeable needs to be watching the work being done all the time. Good bidding practices need to be followed to get the best price for the work. Don't let the vendor suggest or write anything to do with an RFQ or specs for a job. You can end up going to jail over that.
With all this said, don't get me wrong. I like Motorola equipment, I like their system planning for the most part. I own a bunch of Motorola radio equipment I have purchased used over the years. It's just the company's way of doing things to go after customers, they way they now treat their radio service shops and the run around you get all the time. They are now trying to shorten the service life of their products to sell more high priced products. The firmware in their radios is not well tested before it gets released to the field. They work on the idea that let the people in the field find the bugs. Plus some of the firmware upgrades have actually taken features away from the radios that were there before the new release came out.
Ask yourself, is this the way a company should function to keep it's customers happy? Even the federal government agencies are starting to look at the product, the support and the cost of radios they are buying from Motorola.
Re: Goodbye Moto: How Chicago's Greatest Tech Company Fell To Earth
I'm seeing an awful lot of Harris Unity subscriber units in the military arena these days...Jim202 wrote:Even the federal government agencies are starting to look at the product, the support and the cost of radios they are buying from Motorola.
But even that company has it's issues, especially with it's manufacturers representatives, and their attitudes (you know who you are).
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techtonics
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Re: Goodbye Moto: How Chicago's Greatest Tech Company Fell To Earth
Just because Harris Unity is in the military arena does not mean Motorola is not there. Most Military that I am around complain about the Unity radio RX issues, size issues, ergonimics. The only reason they are running the Unity is because DOD seems to think that requiring a tri-band radio is the best option when in fact most in most instances they only use a single band. The Motorola service comes with a price that in my opinion is worth it