MAK-I ASSIGNMENT

Sales Soft, Inc.

Submitted by, Section D Group 3

ADARSH MANISH TIGGA BISWAJEET MALLIK K ASHOK KUMAR RISHABH CHAUHAN SAKET KUMAR GUPTA VADDADI AISHWARYA VIVEK AZAD PGP2011511 PGP2011598 PGP2011670 PGP2011824 PGP2011845 PGP2011923 PGP2011942

Situational Analysis:SaleSoft Inc. was established in 1993 and was founded by Greg Miller to develop and market CSAS (Comprehensive sales automation system). Their first product is in unfinished state and is called PROCEED. This product allows customers to automate their entire marketing, sales and customer service operations. PROCEED has eight modules which integrates the fields sales system, market system and service system. Presently it has developed soft wares for sales system. It received good responses but was not converted to sales. Second product acting as an alternative is TH (Trojan horse). This product requires fine tuning. Company is undecided on its launch. If company move forward with this, a part of resources allocated for PROCEED will be diverted. Present finances of SaleSoftInc are $2.8m . Development of TH costs a million dollars to develop and 3 months duration. MARKET TREND: Software automation market in 1995 is worth $ 1 billion. The project growth expected is 40% for 5 years. This is due to growth in IT infrastructure consisting better hardware, software and networking. This market has no absolute leader and comprises of several small firms with small market share. Many new software makers have announced their entry in this market, both in CMS and CSAS but for CSAS few are taking back step. This makes SaleSoft the lone player in PROCEED type product. Also computer industry has more sales reps than the others.

Consultants: Evaluate potential to automate all existing process and order functions. They help in working a relationship among various function and process of collection storage and analysis of data. They help the customer to finalise the software and hardware to be bought. Consultant wanted the full CSAS product before considering for partnership.Consultant primarily evaluates potential benefit and study and determine the methodology of the consumers. Then they will decide the type of sale automation .For PROCEED Salesoft Inc, needs high consultant support. TH is more like CMS and the company, thus, can move forward on his own. BENEFITS of CSAS: Pricing of TH: The money the consumer can pay is directly proportional to the value the product is offering, or the attributes of the product. This is value based pricing and products in science and technology sector are driven by this. I n our case customers are willing to pay the cost based on the improvements TH have to offer over existing products. Also since the company will launch PROCEED then pricing would take under consideration the financial crisis that the company would face in c arrying out the development of both TH and PROCEED.

The present status of PROCEED would be the same as what TH will offer to customer. Thus considering the value based pricing method, the value of can be measured based on the add-ons that would be added with advancement and achievement in R&D of company. Therefore cost structure should be carefully analysed with a plan of increment in price based on added qualities. Also with this plan in mind the R&D process should be drafted in such a manner that the forthcoming attribute will add the maximum value to existing attributes. To minimise the price company need to reduce the cost of production and increase the sales. Benefits of TH to Customersand value compared to PROCEED: Customers are very clear that they need something more than CMS and they are still sceptical about the PROCEED. The integration of Sales Marketing and Service is not much favoured by many Sale s heads. This give a situation that they are favouring PROCEED but are still hesitant in accepting it unfinished. They want improvements but not the full integration. TH suffices the current customer requirement and is thus a best fit. The requirement is mainly in sales department and TH is advanced primarily in sales. It s not a full integration and thus serves the exact market requirement. Secondly, the price of TH is low so consumer will get more inclined as they can buy it as an advanced CMS. Customers want to add modules or attributes without any loss with past investments. TH is like just another CMS product for company so vendors would make quick profits. TH will also make consumers more adaptable and susceptible to switch the products. IMPACT on SaleSoft selling TH: The company will have to invest $ 700,000 in Developing and Marketing Trojan Horse. Further it will have to invest all its work-power for the next 3 months on Developing Trojan Horse. Selling TH would increase revenue as it has a small return period.That will provide enough capital to stabilize the company s financial position, hence the company can better utilize its funds for PROCEED. TH is easier to sell because there is less need of providing customer education hence workforce requirement is low which will enable the company to simultaneously work on PROCEED. Entry barrier is low for TH hence it has good opportunity and can capture existing market share, which will provide newer client base to the company. Good sales of TROJANHORSE will enhance the company s reputation, which can further be capitalized for marketing PROCEED.

ANALYSIS ON THE BCG MATRIX Currently CMS has the maximum market share but its growth is low (Cash cow). TH growth rate is high but market share of a product of the capabilities which is more than CMS is low (Question mark). PROCEED s market share is not defined as the vendors are sceptical about is usage. Its growth can be predicted only in the long run where the market matures in its usage towards CSAS. The positive aspect is the growing IT industry. TH has the potential of being a cash cow but this is sub ject to its competitiveness in the upcoming market. PROCEED will generate revenue when the customer requirement changes and they are ready to adopt a customized CSAS. Only then it will become a cash cow. CMS is going to become a Dog in the matrix. Current approach of selling PROCEED: In order to enable quick adjustment to the PROCEED platform it was developed to run on Microsoft Windows. Through advanced technologies it gave consumers the advantage of using the complete functionality of the system unattached to the host system.Currently possesses a user base of around three hundred. It has already sold 3 currently operational modules out of the five modules.It is currently pursuing sales opportunity with over 20 prospects in computer software and hardware, financial services and banking with number of users per prospect of about 200 to 600. It focuses on industries that involve high -ticket items with long, complex sales order cycle and involved consultative team selling. TH: In order to cater to the current market need for a platform that would support sales forecasting and management, an SA system called Trojan Horse was conceived to be developed form the sales Management module of the existing PROCEED model. The development of this concept was further aided by the feedback from Sales VPs of the existing/ potential customers. It would also incorporate the functions to be installed in other PROCEED modules but would focus more on the Sales System rather than the Marketing or Services system. Unlike PROCEED, development of TH involved $500,000 cost of marketing and $200,000 cost of development of the product. It also reduced the time frame to three months. From the firm s point of view, TH was focused on sales and reduced the involvement of intermediaries signi ficantly. TH needed minimal customization in comparision to PROCEED and thus involved lesser cost of customization. Customer acquisition: With a strategy of addressing specific consumer needs based on feedback, TH would enjoy greater levels of acceptance. It was easier to market and sell than PROCEED due to two powerful user friendly attributes simple installation and low customization; the latter would enable the user to utilize the application in various divisions of the organization.With significantly lower customization costs SaleSoft could target a bigger market than PROCEED.

Customer Retention: With easier to quantify benefits of TH, the selling process was simplified. With better customer satisfaction, customers have the inclination and also the opportunity to scale up to other SA modules offered by PROCEED Buying cycle for PROCEED: STEP 1: y y y STEP 2: y y y STEP 3: y y y STEP 4: y y y STEP 5: y y STEP 6: y y STEP 7: y y Process: Roll out of full scale system Duration: 4-6 months Process: Modify CSAS software post the feedback Duration: 3-4 months Process: Pilot testing after customization of CSAS. This step involves rigorous testing to check the functionality Duration: 3-5 months Process: finalizing the software and hardware to be purchased Key players : Customers Duration: 6-8 months Working out a relationship among various functions and process of collection, storage and analysis of data Key players : SA consultants and potential customer s Information systems Duration: 2-3 months Evaluating potential to automate existing processes and order functions Key players: Prospective customers and SA consultants Duration : 3-4 months Process: Realization by senior management Players : Businesses Duration : 21-30 months