Sun to post user reviews

Customer feedback will help firms choose the right systems

Sun Microsystems is to post user reviews of its products in a move that mimics a popular community-building tactic of online retailers.

The service is due to go live this week, and Sun expects it to eventually extend across its product lines.

“You'll see user-defined ratings, right on our products,” wrote Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz on his blog. “Just like book or product reviews at Amazon. We're starting with just a few products, but it'll ultimately extend all the way up to our highest-end enterprise offerings.”

Amazon.com and other services that allow reviews have been compromised at times by fake identities, biased comments or malicious posts. In Amazon’s case, the situation led to the creation of a “real name” logo where reviewers can choose to verify their identities by submitting credit-card details to Amazon.

However, Schwartz said that he is unafraid of such problems with community reviewing.

“What's the risk?” he wrote. “That we're exposing ourselves to criticism? That we may have on display the fact that one product or another isn't perfect? That our competitors may try to rate all our products? Nope. The far bigger risk is that we'd meet another customer surprised by what we had to offer.”

Salesforce.com has since last September allowed user reviews on its AppExchange site that lets users preview, test and purchase programs that plug into its Salesforce automation service.

As with Amazon, AppExchange allows users to submit reviews and give a rating out of five stars. Most reviews are positive but many provide useful insight into drawbacks.

For example, a review of workflow tool OpenAir PSA notes that the “interface is somewhat rudimentary in its appearance and calendaring functionality doesn't integrate with Salesforce's existing calendar events, but overall, the solution works very well”.