In another first, Tower Systems launched Software Ideas on Friday, a facility at its website which gives its newsagent users a greater say in the direction of the software and delivers greater transparency over the product development process.
The Software Ideas initiative is as a direct result of several Tower team members reading Jeff Jarvis’ book What Would Google Do? The book struck a nerve with the Tower team which was already working on ways to give newsagents more say in development.
While we have always discussed changes with users, parts of the process have been behind closed doors. Now, all users – anyone coming to our website including competitors – will see the change requests and the votes. This transparency and our acting on requests from users will make the Tower software the most valuable software for newsagents. It is the only software where users have a self-managed, transparent, democratic role in determining the direction of the software.
Click here to see the press release being sent out today launching the Software Ideas facility.
I haven’t read the book but I think it’s a great idea allowing customers to influence change on the software they have invested in. It only makes sense.
Is it a good idea to let competitors see the ideas put forward and possibly stay on par?