In September 2020, we conducted a large-scale customer survey. The aim was to find out how satisfied our customers are with both our ReqSuite® RM software and our service in order to derive meaningful improvements for the future.
After writing to all customers, we received feedback from 36 people. Of these 36 people
- 29 used our ReqSuite® for the purpose of product development, while seven used it for procurement purposes
- 26 also had admin rights in ReqSuite® while ten people only had pure user rights
- ten people already had experience with other RM tools and 26 not yet
Evaluation of ReqSuite® RM
The first part of the survey was about an evaluation of features of our ReqSuite®. The subject of the evaluation was the then version 3.2. For this purpose, we wanted the following properties to be evaluated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good):
- User Experience or Ease of Use
- Performance
- Security
- Adaptability
- Assistance
- Interfaces
- Ease of Learn
User Experience
In terms of user experience, the average rating across all respondents was “good” (3.9), with no one voting worse than “medium” (3.0).
Interestingly, the respondents who already had experience with other RM tools such as DOORS, Integrity, JIRA, etc. rated the user experience of ReqSuite® RM best among all respondents, with an average of 4.1.
Performance
The performance of ReqSuite® RM in version 3.2. was unfortunately only rated “medium” (3.4), which prompted us to implement significant improvements in the current version 3.3 as well as in upcoming releases.
Nevertheless, a total of 50% of the respondents rated the performance as “good” or even “very good”. With an average rating of 4.3, people who use ReqSuite® RM for procurement rated particularly positively.
Security
The security of ReqSuite® RM was rated as “good” or “very good” by 78% of all respondents, resulting in an average of “good” (4.0), which is in line with an accepted industry standard.
Customizablity
The customizability, i.e. the customization options of ReqSuite® RM were rated as “very good” (5.0) by 50% of all respondents, resulting in an average overall rating of “good” (4.2).
Customizability thus received the best rating among all the product features queried.
Assistance
The assistance features of ReqSuite® RM were rated as “good” or “very good” by 50% of the respondents and received an average rating of “good” (3.6).
However, especially for inexperienced end users without administration rights, further assistance seems to be necessary, which we will offer accordingly, especially with the release 3.5.
Interfaces
ReqSuite® RM’s interfaces were rated as “good” or “very good” by 53% of all respondents, resulting in an average of “good” (3.6), with no one voting worse than for “medium” (3.0).
Interestingly, again, people who had already worked with other RM tools rated ReqSuite® RM’s interfaces best among all respondents, with an average of 3.9.
Ease of Learn
Even though the learnability of ReqSuite® RM was rated “good” (3.7) on average and 59% of all respondents rated it as “good” or even “very good”, there was the greatest dispersion in this property.
The learnability was rated particularly well (4.2) by people who already had experience with other RM tools, while among people without other RM experience and without administration rights, the average rating was only “medium” (3.0).
Evaluation Summary
In summary, according to the customer survey, the user experience and the customizability of ReqSuite® RM represent the two central strengths, which was also confirmed by the open-ended final question “What do you like most in ReqSuite® RM?”. Here, 12 people mentioned “usability” and nine people mentioned “customizability”.
With regard to performance and learnability, however, there was potential for improvement (at least in the version 3.2 at that time), which was already taken into account with corresponding weight in our product roadmap. But also in the area of user experience and assistance we will offer further improvements and enhancements in future versions in order to realize even more added value for our customers.
The Net Promoter Score (i.e. the evaluation of the question “How likely would you recommend ReqSuite® RM to a friend or colleague?”) was rated 17. In the group of respondents who already had experience with other RM tools, this value is even 50, which is generally considered “very good” or world-class level in less attractive product categories – which certainly include RM tools.
While especially people with experience in other RM tools appreciate our ReqSuite® RM, inexperienced people still need better support in some cases. However, this cannot be addressed by improvements to the tool alone, but especially by a suitable change and implementation process in our customers’ organizations.
Evaluation of the OSSENO Service
The second part of the survey was about an evaluation of the OSSENO service. For this purpose, only those persons were admitted who had already been in contact with our support. Of the 36 respondents to the survey, 25 persons fell into this category.
We asked them to rate the following characteristics on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good):
- Response time to questions and problems
- Friendliness in customer contact
- Quality of results of support
The response time was rated as “very good” by 20 of the 25 respondents, resulting in an average rating of “very good” (4.8). In particular, it was emphasized that the response time at OSSENO was significantly higher than at many other software vendors.
The friendliness of OSSENO’s support staff was also rated “very good” by 21 of the 25 respondents, resulting in an average rating of “very good” (4.8).
Finally, 18 out of 25 also rated the quality of results of the support as “very good”, which also resulted in an average rating of “very good” (4.7).
Conclusion
The customer survey has shown that with ReqSuite® RM we offer a popular tool as well as a reliable partner for our customers. At the same time, the survey has shown where we should and will continue to improve.
