Precise Software Solutions

Q1. Should Insight be launched in Open World 2000?

Pros:

1. First mover advantage.

2. Delaying the launch probably would result with competition coming up with similar product.

3. Mass propaganda possible via Open world. Less marketing expense (presently that is one of the key expense areas for Precise).

Cons

1. No proper user interface - would hamper the reputation of the product and company as a whole (something for which they have stood for ).

2. Since the roll out will be a beta version, there will be loads of development required. The competition may then imitate the product and come up with their own modifications. First mover advantage may be lost.

3. Only monitor functionality would be launched - the other facets such as detect, improvement and analysis will not roll out and Insight is supposed to be and end-to-end solution.

4. The pricing strategy is still a grey area and also they are not sure about how to go about their salesforce. If they go with a new salesforce, there might not be enough time.

Clearly Precise should go ahead and launch insight in Open World 2001. They get a good marketing platform, are already done for a launch of their final product and have developed a complete solution. There is a high chance that competition would react now, but they too will take a lot of time to come up with their own products. This will give Precise enough time to establish their own product in the market and resolve issues. Will help Insight mature.

Q2. How should the salesforce be aligned for the launch of Insight?

Present salesforce in the organization are selling products of value between $15000- $50000. Most the sales was done via DBAs who could only authorize sales upto $25000. Above that, the approval of CIO was required. The case tells that most of the cases that went to the CIO for approval did not go through. The CIOs did not buy the high cost of a product with singular function - it can be determined that the existing salesforce was not able to sell value when it came to higher echelons in a company.

With Insight, there is no doubt that a direct selling method needs to be taken into account -

* Higher value of product (close to $250,000) - required a deep understanding of the customer's business.

* Complicated Customer value proposition (mentioned in Page 7 para 4).

* Insight is new to the market and the other channels such as VARs and systems integrators only do established products, with hardware solutions

There are 2 options that can be taken while developing a new salesforce:

* Use the best amongst the existing salesforce and form a separate vertical. Salesmen with commissions of $300000 can be chosen and then trained over the next 15 months to become ready.

* Recruit a new sales people who are the top guys from the IT sales industry. Complex value selling is not every one's cup of tea and interaction for such sales will be with CIO and higher - ups.

Q3. Value selling for Precise / SQL.

Assume a 40 hr week

DBA Savings

Hours