Pros
They have had the ability to attract a great level of talent/skill sets to accomodate the many fingers Activant has its' hand in. Between the different platforms and profit centers, they have attracted a high level of talent. If you are willing to just do what you are told, you can probably work here for a long time. There are alot of opportunities to work without either alot of supervision or instruction, so you can kind of do what you want...especially if you produce or are in management's favor. Day to day (especially when you are onsite) there isn't alot of micro-managing going on.
Cons
That might be some of the problem. There doesn't seem to be alot of management of alot of things that are pertinent to your job or satisfying the customer (which has increasingly become something that isn't much talked about vs. when I came here of wanting 100% Referenceable Customers) Career path? There isn't one really. When I came here, the person hiring me specifically told me they wanted "fresh legs and open ideas" to take the company to the next level. That I found out was truly lip service. I told that to a Senior Sales Rep who then informed me "While we want that. it is more important that you don't rock the boat". He had a better idea of what was really wanted than I did. I am still doing the same things as I did when I started and the prospect of doing anything else here is not something I can honestly aspire to...because it just won't happen. There isn't alot of appreciation for a great job here. That maybe fair in that you should do a good job always. But with the maturity of the software being where it is, and the miracles that are done to make customers happy, some sort of acknowledgement would go a long way. While you aren't micro-managed in the field, there also isn't alot of care or consideration for you when you are not on-site. The amount of paperwork has increased exponentially (and just gets bigger every day) all with the key to provide management with more info to lay you off with. Which wouldn't be so bad except that it just becomes overwhelming. If you are not in management, your job is definitely not safe. They have a tendency to lay off the workers (thereby increasing the workload), but not so much the managers. All areas/departments (support/product development/professional services/sales) have become very defensive and adversarial. Team Activant is truly a hollow phrase that even management doesn't throw at you anymore.