Why we are not afraid of Microsoft • Hacker News Board

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#31

Post by vtbassmatt » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #6

Dynamics CRM requires consultants to install, servers to run, etc. etc. It's bizarre anyone would say something so colossally stupid and be so ignorant of reality to say an add-on to an expensive and complicated CRM system will put standalone offerings out of business unless they were a Dynamics consultant. Oh, Gene Marks is a Dynamics consultant. No news here, no news in the original article, it's all just advertisi…

Consultants - probably. Servers - nope, not for about 6 years, since CRM Online shipped in January 2008. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=252780

Your bottom-line takeaway is spot-on.

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#32

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 4:26 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #6

Dynamics CRM requires consultants to install, servers to run, etc. etc. It's bizarre anyone would say something so colossally stupid and be so ignorant of reality to say an add-on to an expensive and complicated CRM system will put standalone offerings out of business unless they were a Dynamics consultant. Oh, Gene Marks is a Dynamics consultant. No news here, no news in the original article, it's all just advertisi…

[deleted]

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#33

Post by tanzam75 » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 4:29 PM UTC

goldenkey wrote: post #2

In the face of certain despair, it's humorous that Freshdesk pulls off the "I'm so smug, come join us" pitch. If I was a Freshdesk customer, I'd be a little worried about the political pow-wow being played. It's quite clear that Freshdesk is looking to get acquired by Microsoft. One of the prerequisites is to smacktack the ol' Microsoft 'legacy' and then whistle dixie.

> It's quite clear that Freshdesk is looking to get acquired by Microsoft.

The reason there's a blog post is because Microsoft just acquired Parature. Why would Microsoft want to acquire a different company in the same space?

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#34

Post by girishm » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 4:46 PM UTC

brentm wrote: post #24

Slightly off topic but what is better about Zendesk? I've been using Freshdesk for a few years and originally chose it because the price was so much less. To me the major benefits of Zendesk appear to be a better mobile experience and a json api (vs Freshdesk's XML). Out of those 2 thing the XML api has been the more annoying to deal with. It looks Zendesk may have dropped their prices a little and may be worth recon…

Freshdesk has had both XML and JSON APIs from day 1. Maybe it was not so obvious as the documentation was done for XML and it was probably assumed that since it is exactly similar for json it was not required. Thanks for the feedback. We will fix the docs.

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#35

Post by brentm » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 5:11 PM UTC

girishm wrote: post #34

brentm wrote: post #24

Slightly off topic but what is better about Zendesk? I've been using Freshdesk for a few years and originally chose it because the price was so much less. To me the major benefits of Zendesk appear to be a better mobile experience and a json api (vs Freshdesk's XML). Out of those 2 thing the XML api has been the more annoying to deal with. It looks Zendesk may have dropped their prices a little and may be worth recon…

Freshdesk has had both XML and JSON APIs from day 1. Maybe it was not so obvious as the documentation was done for XML and it was probably assumed that since it is exactly similar for json it was not required. Thanks for the feedback. We will fix the docs.

Good to know.

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#36

Post by bosch » Sat, Jan 18, 2014, 9:11 PM UTC

davidjgraph wrote: post #26

nemesisj wrote: post #12

Is there any otherwise-vanilla SaaS out there that generates more controversy than Freshdesk (at least among the HN readership)? Already on this article (8 comments posted as I write this) we have a FUD comment saying their post is "smug" and their customers should be worried, and then another talking about how you need to "be careful" about criticising the company because their employees victimised the commenter by…

I went from Zendesk to Freshdesk purely based on my experience on one feature request on Zendesk. The feature was promised repeatedly for, roughly as I recall, 4 years and never delivered. Freshdesk functionality isn't better, but it is cheaper and they've never made empty promises that affected me. The thread seems to have been removed now I search for it, not surprised, it reflected very badly on them. Edit: Found…

That is the most ridiculous thread I've ever seen from a company. Not only did the employee take a shot at people (self hosting solutions is wrong) he also epically, never delivered what the people were asking for even after FIVE YEARS!!

I'm really wondering why he even continued to reply to the thread.

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#37

Post by xtracto » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 3:46 AM UTC

girishm wrote: post #34

brentm wrote: post #24

Slightly off topic but what is better about Zendesk? I've been using Freshdesk for a few years and originally chose it because the price was so much less. To me the major benefits of Zendesk appear to be a better mobile experience and a json api (vs Freshdesk's XML). Out of those 2 thing the XML api has been the more annoying to deal with. It looks Zendesk may have dropped their prices a little and may be worth recon…

Freshdesk has had both XML and JSON APIs from day 1. Maybe it was not so obvious as the documentation was done for XML and it was probably assumed that since it is exactly similar for json it was not required. Thanks for the feedback. We will fix the docs.

Hey, a bit late to the thread but I wanted to ask a question about your service (I couldn't find a "send private message" button in HN):

My company is evaluating several Helpdesk systems (both SaaS and Open Source). FreshDesk is one of those we have in mind. However I would like to know how possible is it to "tweak" Freshdesk to meet our needs.

For example, being able to add HTML elements (forms) or "dashboards" made by us would be a plus. Also, how "mature" are your APIs? (i.e. what % of the functionality can be accessed via API?).

Basically, we need to use a HelpDesk/Ticketing/CRM system, but must tailor it to our business need which is more on the financial side of things (we are looking to make the HelpDesk system our one-stop-panel for managing).

is there anyone @ your company I can contact to discuss this more in private?

Thanks a lot!

Re: Why we are not afraid of Microsoft

#38

Post by saurabh_p » Mon, Jan 20, 2014, 12:39 PM UTC

xtracto wrote: post #37

girishm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freshdesk has had both XML and JSON APIs from day 1. Maybe it was not so obvious as the documentation was done for XML and it was probably assumed that since it is exactly similar for json it was not required. Thanks for the feedback. We will fix the docs.

Hey, a bit late to the thread but I wanted to ask a question about your service (I couldn't find a "send private message" button in HN): My company is evaluating several Helpdesk systems (both SaaS and Open Source). FreshDesk is one of those we have in mind. However I would like to know how possible is it to "tweak" Freshdesk to meet our needs. For example, being able to add HTML elements (forms) or "dashboards" made…

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in Freshdesk. If you can email me: saurabh@freshdesk.com, I will be glad to get on a call, understand your requirements and take the discussion further.

Best Regards, Saurabh Prabhuzantye