Benefits for IT Vendors    Benefits for IT Users 

Benefits 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. Our products and services are used enterprise wide and provide not only efficiencies in data collection for IT vendors but also strategic and competitive insights that enable business to be generated. We provide a compelling value-add to the sales force, marketing groups, and product management teams.

Vendor Audience
Competitive Profiles
  • Sales executives and sales support teams
  • Field marketing
  • Pricing analysts
  • Competitive analysts and support groups
Server CAR (Consolidation Analysis Resource)
  • Product management
  • Field sales
  • System engineers and solution architects

 

Vendor Audience
Custom Consulting Services
  • Product marketing
  • Product management
  • Field support
  • Marketing communications
Competitive Positioning Services
  • Sales and sales support
  • Field marketing
  • Competitive intelligence support
Research & Advisory Services
  • Product marketing
  • Product management
  • Product development teams

 

Tactical Sales Enhancement – Helping You Win Business Today

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. Further, our Server CAR service (Consolidation Analysis Resource) is an invaluable tool for product managers interested in modeling and comparing different scale-up versus scale-out scenarios; systems engineers and solutions architects working with clients on server consolidation projects; and field sales personnel engaged in system outsourcing or server consolidation opportunities.

In addition to our powerful information services, IDEAS also provides a range of analyst consulting 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:

  1. Market need identified
  2. Product designed to meet needs
  3. Product development with tradeoffs
  4. Product release
  1. Product marketing and sales execution
  2. Sales strategies refined, tactics devised
  3. End of life, feedback for new products

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. Throughout all of these steps Competitive Profiles is an extremely useful reference point for comparative analysis of pricing, features/functions, and performance.