There are many things wrong with this organization. Here is a list of some (but not all) of the issues plaguing Solera (almost all of which revolve around the company trying to go public). I will go into a lot of detail for two reasons: 1) To provide insight and a warning to anyone who is currently thinking about taking a job at Solera. 2) A grocery list for the executives at this organization to see where they need to improve drastically in order to succeed.
-Finance and Legal departments are in complete disarray. This has led to massive wait times to get anything done. For example, there was a rebate program created for our reseller partners to help customers during the migration from 3G to 4G. These rebates were to be paid to the partners to then be distributed to the end customer. This program ended December 2021. At the time of this review, we are about to enter 10 months were our resellers and customers have STILL not been paid. TEN MONTHS. Our reseller partners are moving on to sell competitors products due to the lack of urgency (as well as the inability to follow through on promises that things will be “taken care of soon” time and time again.) customers are demanding cancellations daily due to the poor treatment.
-Top talent/veterans continue to leave. Solera then either fills the chairs with people who are under qualified, or chooses not to fill them at all. Speaking from the Channel side of the organization (something Solera has little to no experience in, as they have never had a channel), we have not had a VP of channels for almost 10 months. The closest thing we’ve had to a leader is a former director of SMB account management, who unfortunately (try as he might) does not know what he needs to know to effectively run a channel organization. A year and a half ago prior to my organization being acquired by Solera, our team came in at 120%. By the end of the 2023 fiscal year, The team will come in under 50%.
-Lack of support/training/enablement. Support is based out of Mexico. 75% of the time our customers complain about not being able to understand the support reps due to poor English. Partners look for training on new products in order to sell them effectively, but the partner technology advisors and product managers have little to no knowledge of the products we offer, and are unable to answer basic questions on the spot. Trying to find spec sheets or information across the organization for any product is next to impossible.
-No new comp plans since the beginning of the fiscal year. New fiscal year started April 1st. We are almost in October. We do not know what our new quotas are, ratios, multipliers, pay structure, etc.. Comp plans were promised multiple times, I just like everything else in this company, anytime someone promises something, expect a 6 to 12 months delay.
-Failed salesforce implementation. In 2021, the company attempted to move from salesforce classic to salesforce lightning. After the system being off-line for two weeks at the beginning of the year, they had to revert to the original instance because lightning was not flushed out. They then decided to force the implementation again later in October. While there were improvements compared to the first attempt, the second version was not much better. As a result, reports for KPI‘s, tracking, visibility, shipments (which are tied to commissions) we’re lost, and have NOT been replaced. From a sales perspective, there is no information on who our current customers are, what products they are currently using, what their monthly billing is etc. You are 100% blind.
-Little to no innovation. The strategy for Solera has been to acquire companies with technology, slap the Solera logo on it, and then do nothing. All of the different product stacks live in their own independent silos. No cross functionality or integrations exist at this time. Teams operate in the same manner as well, making finding information about other products or services a painstakingly slow process.
-Zero transparency. You can bring up an issue that needs to be resolved, and you may get an answer in a week, a month, or not at all. I had some basic IT support issues that I needed resolved back in April, and after getting my Director involved multiple times, constant follow ups, I still have issues that were not resolved over the course of six-months. This applies to all areas of the business when it comes to strategy, support, sales, commissions, etc.
-Failure to listen. This one is the most important. I speak again from the side of channels, as that is where I had the most experience out of anyone in my company (since all of the other channel veterans had left over the course of a 3 to 5 month period). There were multiple occasions where I tried to direct leadership to make the best decisions for long-term scalability and growth. From pricing models, partner pairings, gtm strategy, user conference partner meetings, etc., there were many times where there was an opportunity to do things the right way. However, because doing these things would require more effort, or were not as convenient, these recommendations were unrecognized and ignored. The same to be said for pretty much every other area of the company.
I’m leaving this organization because there are little to no growth opportunities left. If I had to use one word to describe the experience, it would be heartbreaking. There have been incredible people that genuinely cared and were able to get things done. Due to the terrible leader ship, the lack of transparency and communication, the dishonesty, and the complete lack of urgency, all that is left are C+ players that are all entering the final stages of burn out.
