Case Question on a Case A: Pandesic- The Challenges of a New Business Venture.
1.Strategy Content:
a. The Product/Opportunity and Risks:
The Business originate when Intel’s vice president and worldwide planning and logistics Harold Hughes noticed that there is major shift in Intel’s customer base and the increasing number of Intel customers were small “mom and pop” shops that are scattered all across areas such as southeast Asia. To meet the communication and information needs of working with a growing number of small customers, Intel and the SAP team turned to internet. The initial idea was focused on web enabling SAP/R3, the core of SAP’s ERP system and intel used the new system through to communicate and transact with its smaller customers.
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Pricing model:
I think I should have done the same which pandesic done with their pricing model. They are charging low for their system which any company can easily afford and the only thing the get the percentage revenue of those companies earned by the help of their system and as the revenue increase pandesic also decreases their percentage.
d. Selling Strategy:
Pandesic direct sales force started very small. They have only three full time sales representative and all are located in Sunnyvale. Vincze, director of sales and channels was trying to hire more but was more aggressively signing up SAP channel partners to sell Pandesic solutions. These channel partners were compensated for selling pandesic and were assumed to add some value to the merchant customers. Selling software through the indirect sales efforts of channel partners was a fairly common form of a channel extension used in many software’s industries. The e-commerce market was not yet as clearly established as the core SAP market and different selling skills were likely indeed. Accordingly, pandesic sales force would serve more as a support t the channel than as a direct selling
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I think that because indirect sales forces earn more revenue for pandesic and as they are new they may not come up with proper direct sales process. As SAP as experience with it and they know the benefits of indirect sales projects that is why pandesic also follow indirect sales force to sell their products but still they are trying to improve their direct sales force to be more competitive in the future.
Channel partners add some value to the merchant customers. Selling software through the indirect sales efforts of channel partners was a fairly common form of a channel extension used in many software’s industries. Moreover, channel partnership was common at SAP and represented a significant focus of the SAP selling model. For these reasons pandesic also used channel
Sapient is a business consulting and technology Services Company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1991 to specialize in client/server application development. Sapient was one of a group of companies (along with firms such as Cambridge Technology Partners and i-Cube) that sought to differentiate themselves from traditional consultants by offering strong technical skills and application development to enable companies to get business value out of technology within fixed-fee/fixed-time contracts and by focusing solely on client's success to achieve long term goals and objectives. In the mid-1990's, Sapient recognized the potential of Internet and started to offer Internet solutions to its clients. Sapient was one of the few e-business integrators from the dot-com era that recognized offshore opportunities early on. It invested in global delivery capabilities in India starting in 2001.The Company has been through significant changes over the past five years, including significant shifts in its client base, offshore staff mix, and target contract size, but the focus on its purpose, core values, Internet enablement and related technologies is unchanged.
...2013). Cisco channel sales and inspiration in the age of internet. Contemporary Logistics, (12), 14-30. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1468933047?accountid=3783
This situation seemed interesting to Vanguard because of the exponential increase in the number of potential clients, whom Vanguard doesn’t have to directly advise and serve about their products and services, combined with the high potential for profitability. The development of this broad qualified sales force could also be done at relatively low development cost. The positive aspects of this alternative are somehow strongly counterbalanced by the fact that huge efforts of mass advertising would be required in order to inform the potential customers about Vanguard’s brand, and over whom Vanguard would have no control in the sale process. Vanguard would also have to face some strong competition in its relationship with the intermediaries, who are not always the most loyal sales representatives.
The company has self organizing team and use groupware, emails and blogs to communicate with the customers.
Sales Force Sales Force (SF) is an important aspect to any company’s success. In the past, we have known to associate SF with aggressive selling, as that was their main approach in obtaining revenue for many companies. Technological advances have changed the way companies utilize its SF.
The sales leads are now centralized and accessible across branches rather than individually gathered and processed by salespeople. In standardizing customer information, it now makes the marketing teams, analytic teams, and customer managers on the same page. It creates a “friendly competition” that encourages close cooperation for all areas. One major cost that this new strategy created was the confusion of different areas in RBC. Product managers and customer managers often misunderstood what way of action was appropriate, which lead to another problem: it took more time to make decisions. A benefit of this change is that there was no fighting for resources and instead cooperation. Another benefit would be the divisional organization, which can be seen in Exhibits 3a and
The only concern is the ability and attitudes of the sales teams. The company needs buy-in from sales as that is where the customer interaction is and where the profit comes in. Dynacorp redefined their jobs without their input, should they perceive their influence on company decision making there will be more buy-in as they would feel like they are involved and are important to the company.
An internal sales force is a company who uses their own employees to sell a product they have produced. They are employed by the organization and receive a salary, no matter if the product is successful or not. The externalized labor market consists of independent contractors who agree to sell the product for the company for this they receive a commission according to the amount of products sold. Companies who have greater difficulty in evaluating a salespersons performance are more likely to substitute surveillance for commission as a control device (Ande...
In order to increase the sale and number of customer to the company, SAP America established autonomous regional Profit & Loss (P&L) center with their respective sales, consulting and training teams. This resulted in every regional office to work on their own sales and marketing strategy to improving the sales. In order to penetrate the market and build a base, they created an industry strategy called ICOE’s, who act as bridge between the customer and product development organizations.
Although there is an abounding practice of research in selling and sales management, a considerable amount of knowledge rests on theories and paradigms that were forward-thinking in past decades. In order to keep up with a demanding marketplace, the paradigms and theories will need revision.
Sales forces drive revenue for their employers by actively seeking out and engaging customer prospects. Sales can be described as the most personal branch of the marketing function, as salespeople often work directly with customers, either face to face, over the phone or in online sales chat. Sales force objectives and strategies are mainly concerned with boosting companies' top-line revenue growth but may also strive to reduce marketing costs and increase profitability.
So with the much help from SAP ERP system, we have NRG-C bars in the market for sale. So it’s safe to say SAP if properly installed, implemented and right data integrated can ease its system users in their day to day business process and also help them in taking strategic business decision.
This model consists nine components in total including customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships and cost structure in a conceptual priority order (Osterwalder 2012) which are belong to four main areas comprising of offerings, customers, infrastructure and financials (Rytkonen & Nenonen 2014). Although both nine are important, this essay will only concentrate to three key characteristics which are customer segments, value propositions and
...t in both direct and indirect ways. Direct sell will include, sell in online forums or use direct mail to reach our customers. When selling directly, we can take the time to showcase our product’s distinct attributes. Before turning sales over to a distributor, we will build a base of direct sales to prove the product will sell. Using an indirect approach, we will persuade stores to carry our products. While more time-consuming, approaching retailers in store or at trade shows gives us more control over how our product is displayed and how it’s presented to customers. For indirect sales incorporate a middleman in some way or another. A distributor’s functions include stocking, ease of ordering and quick delivery with no pioneering sales efforts. Intermediaries have expertise and contacts, but they may require minimum order quantities and an established sales record.
There are a several revenue models that are found in the m-Commerce market place, some of which involve customers, while others do not. Typically, there are three revenue models that would involve payment by customers to any one or more of the value network members. These customer-initiated revenue models are access, subscription, and pay-per-use. Additional revenue models involve other members of the value network and are hence titled “non-customer initiated”. The non-customer initiated revenue models are ...