IDEAS for IT Vendors

For more than 15 years, Ideas International (IDEAS) has been a premier supplier of tactical and strategic market intelligence to the largest global IT vendors. Today we have deep and active relationships with 9 out of the top 10 vendors worldwide.

Our research has provided a compelling value-add to the sales force, marketing groups, and planning teams of the largest IT supplier companies. Our influence has assisted sales executives with head-to-head competitive analyses and insights that directly translated to business in the field. Our detailed inputs have also assisted vendors with their product planning and development activities – from product inception through to product release and implementation.

Given our strong customer base and relationships with the buy-side of the global IT industry, we are in a very powerful position to help vendors understand buying trends, user requirements, and how their product strategies play against those patterns.

Typical Vendor Usage of Our Product Capabilities

 

Tactical Sales Enhancement – Helping You Win Business Today

IDEAS has a number of research capabilities at hand to help provide your sales people with the competitive edge that they need to win business day-to-day in active sales situations.

We provide your field sales teams with the ammunition that they need to best promote your competitive advantages and deflect discussion from your potential weaknesses. Leveraging our research capabilities effectively will place your sales executives in a powerful position to control any prospect discussions that compare your capabilities to competitor strategies and products.

At the day-to-day level, our online Competitive Profiles (CP) research service is a daily updated sales reference portal containing detailed head-to-head coverage of the pricing, features, and performance of IT infrastructure solution components. By using CP, sales executives can rapidly compare their own positioning against that of the latest offerings from the competition and be confident of their strengths in sales encounters.

In addition to the powerful CP database, IDEAS also provides a range of Competitive Positioning Services to directly assist the field sales force in winning business. These services provide actionable and direct assistance with sales effectiveness through sales messaging, coaching, customized database delivery, and tools development.

Strategic Marketing Support – Product Lifecycle Spectrum

Throughout the typical IT product lifecycle spectrum there is an opportunity to make value-added use of IDEAS analyst-driven research and advisory services.

The steps of a typical product lifecycle are outlined below:

Market need identified Product designed to meet needs Product development with tradeoffs Product release

Product marketing and sales execution Sales strategies refined, tactics devised End of life, feedback for new products

There lies potential advantage in applying our research services to this continuum.

During steps 1 and 2, IDEAS analysts can provide you with direct market feedback regarding which combination of features will produce the best mix for market needs.

At step 4, product release, our white papers and marketing support capabilities can provide you with a well-respected independent source of validation for your go-to-market strategies.

During step 5, as you launch the product, we can assist with actionable materials to help you get the most effective marketing message across to your own internal sales force and your external prospects.

And when the rubber hits the road in step 6, we offer a series of tactical capabilities that can help you win business and knock-off the competition.

If you are not fully exploiting the compelling IT vendor proposition that IDEAS provides then you should be concerned – because you can be confident that some of your competitors are and are directly reaping the benefits.