Let's take Bob's message a step at a time from yet another ex-employee's perspective.... "Websuite and Esphere are independent, unrelated companies." This is completely 100% wrong. "Esphere" itself is actually a WebSuite-developed product. When Andersen hostily took over WebSuite operations, WebSuite as a company was already on NAR's bad side and he needed a new name to make himself appear seperate from WebSuite. "Esphere" as a company was then formed and aquired all control of WebSuite's assets so that it could operate under a clean name for the NAR. "Esphere" currently has no employees, it is a shell company used as a name only. All work carried out by Esphere is done by means of outside contracting on a project basis. "Esphere" currently controls and manages all of WebSuite's products [WebSuite, E-Pro], all development of which came to a halt months ago. Another WebSuite-developed "asset" that it controls and sold NAR on is the WAP functionality to enable realtors to search listings and communicate via their cell phones. This was a hoax; a non-functional slideshow developed by WebSuite under the direction of Andersen to be sold to the NAR, all development of which ceased indefinetely once it was successfully presented. Let's move on to Bob's next point: "Esphere has upgraded the technology infrastructure and moved the servers, which caused some downtime for the network." As of this writing, the "Esphere" company has not yet upgraded the infrastructure nor has it moved any servers. In fact, the company has only downgraded the infrastructure by attemping to manager systems that it does not understand. There has been significant downtime - none of which has been caused my upgrading or moving servers. Much of the downtime has been caused by Esphere's contractors being pressured to make changes and modifications to systems which they are unfamiliar with. Currently the systems sit unmonitored in a locked facility with no one on hand to recover if problems should occur. Another portion of the downtime has occured from Esphere contractors actually taking the systems offline due to either Andersen's direct requests or his non-compliance with the contracts with his contractors. Bob continues to say... "To improve customer service, Esphere has secured a toll-free number with support representatives available." A quick call to Esphere's "new" support number will give some insight here. The only place you will get with this number is into a bottomless voice mail box. The "support representatives available" are the same couple of remaining WebSuite employees who have always answered the phones, only now the only way likely to get through to them is by voice mail because of the quantity of support calls they are attemping to handle. If you attempt to get a directory of employees and extensions you will find that the system is not even set up! The Esphere company is nothing but a fancy new sign (and not so fancy at that) which has been hung on the deserted WebSuite building. It is unfortunate that someone in Bob's position has been so convinced of their tale to publish an article as he has done. If there is one thing that Esphere is successful at, it's lying and telling stories to the right people. They sure as hell can't run an Internet applications company, and it is a sad story to see the NAR be sold on a scandal such as this. I don't believe that Bob is a bad person or that he should resign. I believe that he was unfortunately got caught in the Esphere trap, as many other have, and simply needs to put some real effort into finding out the real story. In fact, with clear and correct information Bob could be in a very powerful position to give the NAR some proper direction. This post along with others tell the story, but to really understand it and believe it for himself, he will have to do the digging. I commend Blanche Evans on doing an absolutely superior job of this being an "outsider", and am always anxious to see what she digs up next. Good luck Bob!

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