A couple of months ago, I blogged about the questionable tactics that Halogen Software used to elicit proprietary information from their nemesis—SuccessFactors. With a court date scheduled and inflated rhetoric from both camps, an agreement surfaced, based an admission of deceit by Halogen, and it imposed penalties on the perpetrator of this fraud. When it was all said and done, did anyone really care?
SuccessFactors obviously did care. In the name of protecting their intellectual property, they extracted a one-time financial payment from Halogen, but will it cover the deals they lost to Halogen based on this confidential information. Also, Halogen was forced to destroy the data they covertly obtained, but how can you erase those critical nuggets of information from the brains of those sales and marketing folks at Halogen? Finally, Halogen will also need to provide all employees with ethics training. SuccessFactors will probably crow about that with an air of superiority, but it will really matter in the long run?
More importantly, however, what does the market think? Personally, I thought suppliers, customers and prospects would think twice about doing business with Halogen. But, business seems to moving forward unabated. A recent LinkedIn group discussion asked about HR software, and specifically Halogen and SuccessFactors. Many weighed in with their opinions, but none mentioned the Halogen faux pas. Furthermore, an IDC analyst in an online article claimed that this escapade is outweighed by the outstanding support that Halogen provides its customers. It’s great they support the use of their product, but I think one has to realize that Halogen has shown their true colors through their actions. Will you feel the same way when they overbill you, promise features they can’t or won’t deliver, or if they provide their customer list to partner organizations for their marketing efforts?
Ryck Marciniak (guest blogger)
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