Solution Providers: Belichick's Microsoft Surface Flameout Shows Why You Can't Ignore Your Users

New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said he's no longer using Microsoft Surface tablets during games. The NFL and Microsoft won't discuss what they're going to do about it. But solution providers told CRN the incident underscores the importance of listening to user feedback after deploying technology solutions.

"From my perspective as a solution provider, it's extremely important ... that I have those conversations with the actual users," said Douglas Grosfield, the founder and CEO of Five Nines IT Solutions, a Kitchener, Ontario-based strategic service provider. "Let them beat up [the technology]. They'll find holes, they'll tell you, and that'll only lead to a better end user experience."

[Related Video: Here's The Surface Tablet The Patriots Coach Hates So Much]

Belichick, the NFL's longest-tenured coach with the most playoff wins in the game's history, has frequently aired his frustrations about the technology that culminated with his comments Tuesday—in which he said he "just can't take it anymore" and is now "done with the tablets."

In January, Belichick said that issues with using the Surface were a "pretty common problem" and that "there's really nothing you can do." The comments followed a Surface outage—which the NFL attributed to network issues—during the Patriots' AFC Championship game against the Denver Broncos.

Earlier this month, Belichick was caught on camera throwing his Surface after appearing to become frustrated while swiping on the tablet.

Belichick's agitation was able to escalate to the point of making statements against the technology to reporters this week.

With the high visibility of Belichick as a Surface user, "how could [Microsoft] ignore something like that?" Grosfield said.

Microsoft did not respond to CRN questions Thursday about whether CEO Satya Nadella or other Microsoft executives have reached out to Belichick about his Surface usage.

Microsoft paid $400 million to the NFL in 2013 to put Surface tablets into the hands of coaches and players on the sidelines.

The five-year deal has made Microsoft "The Official Sideline Technology Sponsor of the NFL."

In situations like the one with Belichick and the Surface, "you better move heaven and earth to make sure that person has a positive experience," Grosfield told CRN. "If they’re having a negative experience, it may be simply because whoever is working with them on the technology doesn’t understand what the issue is.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be a poor experience for this guy. Why wouldn’t you bring your expertise to bear as a provider or vendor, to make sure that a high-profile customer is shouting from the rooftops, 'Hey, I love this stuff'? That's a heck of a missed opportunity."

For all technology solutions, "the issue is one of both setting it up properly and training the people how to use it. And then listening to users," said David Wrenn, vice president at Branford, Connecticut-based Microsoft partner Advanced Office Systems. "Nothing is static in this world, so once you put it out there, you probably need to tweak it, so it works according to what the end user's hopes are."

Rick Jordan, director of sales and strategic alliances at Toronto-based Tenet Computer Group, a Microsoft partner, agreed that it’s "extremely crucial" for technology providers to be responsive when they get wind of user frustrations.

Jordan said that Tenet Computer Group stays proactive by regularly gathering and reviewing analytics of how their solutions are being used by customers.

"After every month we look at the analytics to see, are they using it? Are they not using it?" Jordan said. "We want to make sure we retain these clients."

In regard to the Belichick situation, "the developers of this solution need to find out where his frustration is so they could tweak it, so maybe it could be a good tool for him," Wrenn said.

NFL teams this season use Surface Pro 4 models for viewing photos and videos, but Belichick has said he plans to use printed photos of plays on the sidelines instead.

Microsoft and the NFL have not responded to CRN questions about whether additional technical assistance might be available for the Patriot-Steelers game on Sunday, or whether they've determined a likely cause for the issues reported by Belichick.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Belichick had called his move to stop using tablets a "personal decision."

"I just have given it my best shot. I've tried to work through the process. But it just doesn't work for me, and that's because there's no consistency" to using a tablet, Belichick said.

Solution providers have told CRN that it's challenging to pinpoint exactly what is causing the problems for Belichick given the abundance of network and communications equipment in use, in addition to the tablets themselves.

In a statement Tuesday, Microsoft had said, "We respect Coach Belichick's decision, but stand behind the reliability of Surface."

"In the instances where sideline issues are reported in NFL games, we work closely with the NFL to quickly address and resolve," Microsoft said.

In January, following the outage at the AFC title game, a Microsoft executive had written that "Microsoft Surfaces have not experienced a single failure in the two years they’ve been used on NFL sidelines."

The January outage was attributed to a network cable malfunction, according to the NFL.

"The issue was not caused by the tablets or the software that runs on the tablets. We have experienced no issues with the tablets this season. Any issues were network related," the NFL said at the time.