Orchid Partner Survey 2005 - Results Summary

Thu, 30 Jan 2025

Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out our recent survey!

We've just finished sifting through the many responses to our first-ever Partner Survey and would like to give a summary of the key findings, noting that:

This article doesn't pretend to respond to every question asked or suggestion made: It focuses on the issues raised by multiple responders, or areas we think might be of the most interest to our readers.
Most responses were anonymous, but where people raised specific issues and chose to identify themselves, we'll try to respond to them personally.
Some of the points below include links to Knowledgebase articles that can only be accessed by partners who have registered for access through our website.

Who responded, and how are they feeling?

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of responders were consultants who have been actively selling and/or recommending Orchid's products. Based on the number of responders, and the broad range of products they take an interest in, we feel it was a good, representative cross-section of our customer base.

We asked about their overall perception of Orchid, taking into account our products, support processes, and partner communications. Pleasingly, by far the most common response was "Very Satisfied", with nobody saying they were less than satisfied.

While we were gratified by all the kind sentiments expressed, the main purpose of the survey was to find out where we could improve, so that is what we'll focus on here.

Product Improvement suggestions & roadmaps

Sage 300 Web Screens: This was by far the most common area of interest. In response, we've updated our WebScreens Availability article to reflect the latest status and articulate our development plans.
Recent Releases (Sage 300): Some of the suggested improvements may have already been released, but slipped under the radar. You can find a full history of recent product updates, and what they contained, on our Online Help Release Notes page.
Recent Releases (Sage Intacct): The same applies to Sage Intacct, which also has an EFT Processing Release Notes page in Online Help.
Future Roadmap (Sage Intacct): This roadmap article gives an overview of improvements we are currently working on or actively considering.

Videos, Online Help, and other Support Resources

In addition to the general points listed below, there were some quite specific comments and questions. Sometimes this implied that they couldn't find answers in our online resources, or were confused by the answers they did find.

We are taking that into account as we work to continuously improve the quality of our content.

Specific suggestions included:

Short Product Demo/Sales Videos: While these already exist for most products, we agree that they could be better. We'll be looking to refresh and improve these over the coming months.
Overlapping (or hard to find) Videos: We've created a huge amount of video content over the past years, but quantity doesn't always mean quality. We'll be looking to rationalize the content, retire old videos, provide more short videos, and improve the ways they are indexed and searched.
Online Activation Codes: We were asked if our partners could access activation codes online, rather than having to request them by email. This can be done today through our Partner Portal - but only by the registered Orchid Renewals contact, for security reasons.

Orchid Webinar Suggestions

You asked for it, so we'll make sure 2025 includes at least one webinar that focuses on each of Info-Explorer, Inter-Entity, EFT Processing (Sage 300 & Intacct), and Extender...on top of the DML & Notes webinar conducted in January.
We'll also include a regular webinar on What's New, and What's Coming
You asked for a webinar about Extender Workflow. Watch this space - we have something exciting coming in the next few months!
End-User Webinars: This was one of our favourite suggestions. We're onto it and look forward to making this a regular part of our programming. Once again, watch this space, and look out for the invitation.