A couple years ago when I was evaluating ASP.NET control
suites I looked at two vendors very closely -- Telerik and Infragistics. The
high level summary goes something like this -- at the time the Infragistics
controls were plentiful, but lacked the polish and quality of the Telerik
offering. So I made the logical decision and purchased the Telerik suite. During my first year
of ownership I noticed a few things that were very impressive to me:
- A
published product roadmap. Web developers today are asked to really push
the limits of the web browser, and it is helpful to know about new
features so we can prepare to take advantage of everything offered in new
releases. Those of us with demanding customers and site visitors need to
stay one step ahead of requests.
- Telerik
appeared to be focused on their ASP.NET control suite.
- Releases
appeared on or within days of the posted dates. There is nothing so fun as
release day when we can dive in to the new fixes and features!
- New
releases appear to have a limited number of bugs. Very nice. Replace a few
files on the development sites and after minimal code changes and testing
move to production.
- The
support staff monitor the forums very closely and respond to discussions directly
and with the detail needed to answer specific questions.
- Support
incidents are answered quickly. From time to time I have even received
assistance on issues that might be viewed as outside the support
responsibility of Telerik.
- Customer
communications is fantastic. Customer surveys and a willingness to listen
to customer comments and concerns in an effort to continually improve. Oh,
and not only do they accept feedback, they act on it (improvements to the
forums and to the product line).
Renewing my Telerik subscription for another year was a no-brainer.
During the second year of ownership
I have noticed a few changes. As with just about everything in life, some
things stay the same, some things change for the worse, and other things
improve. I am sure these changes have very good reasons behind them, I list
them here mainly because these are the things that have set Telerik apart from
other companies:
- The
product roadmap was not updated as frequently and did not provide the same
level of insight in to the next release. Perhaps to allow for some competitive
advantage? Perhaps because the project managers are not in-tune with what
the developers can accomplish during the development stage, and it is
easier to remove features from the list when the customer doesn't know it
was originally due for the release.
- Telerik
no longer appears to be focused on any one product. As an outsider who
knows nothing about the inner workings of their organization, it appears
that they are trying to do too much with too little -- stretching
themselves too thin in an effort to be everything to everyone. Don't get
me wrong, I would likely use the other products they create if they are
included in without extra licensing, but if I really needed something
solid I would find myself evaluating a best of breed product.
- Releases
have not appeared by the published dates. I have witnessed quite a few
development companies go through this same scenario... Start with the
intension of being very open, then they have a few problems and miss a
date here and there and start to get complaints from customers. The result
of sharing release dates with customers and not meeting the dates is no
more specific release dates. It is easier to hit a release date of the
second half of a month than it is to hit an actual date. What happens when
the estimated release dates are missed? No release dates at all. This
isn't a huge deal, and it has happened to a lot of companies. More times
than not Telerik used to hit their more specific release dates.
- Releases
appear to have more bugs, and are often followed by multiple service
packs. I am a developer and understand that all software has bugs. Every
line of code in every new feature presents a possible bug. So, I would
rather have a service pack to fix issues than have to wait for the next
major release. I also understand that if a company were to wait to release
a product until there were "zero bugs" that the software would
never be released.
- I have
noticed that frequently someone in the community attempts to answer most
customer questions before Telerik chimes in with their input. This may
simply be caused by the fact that the community is in and out of the
forums 24 hours a day, and Telerik works normal business hours. Perhaps
others attempting to answer questions in a community setting like this
fees Telerik up to focus on official support tickets and development. As a
customer I value the Telerik follow-up comments more than those of
Intermediate, Master, or MVP customers.
- I have
not witnessed any significant changes to the level of support provided,
and that is a good thing.
- Telerik
continues to look for ways to improve.
I don't want to get in to a feature comparison here -- we
all know that Telerik has some products and features that Infragistics doesn't and
vise versa. My thought is that I haven't seen anything from Telerik to show me
that they are working to be a leader with their current offerings. The
reporting and Windows form products are in its early stages, and it is hard to
see where Telerik plans to take these products. Can the Telerik organization realistically
handle developing and supporting all of the new products they have created
(Reporting, Windows Controls, SiteFinity), and continue to provide the same
level of quality and service we have come to expect in previous years? Is the
Telerik product line expanding faster than they are? Are they attempting to
research, develop, market, and support too many products in a too short a period
of time?
I am a happy Telerik customer and my interaction with the
company has been largely positive. So much so that I actually want to see them succeed
(as opposed to not caring either way). As far as I can tell, Infragistics has
been very busy playing catch-up, and they are really challenging the Telerik product
lines. Taking another look at these two vendors today makes me wonder if Telerik
is loosing the edge they had in product focus, quality, and feature-set.