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In This Issue: |
What They're Saying |
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What They're Saying
In The News
Stage 4 Solutions In Action
Thought Leadership |
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"Niti Agrawal's presentation on Stage 4 Solutions' 5
step strategy development process was a huge draw for SVPMA members and yielded one of our highest attended
events. Her presentation, covering both strategy theory and practical advice, was very well received by the
audience, who found her to be an engaging and entertaining speaker."
- Mike Freier, Silicon Valley Product Management Association, Director of Membership
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In The News |
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Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal, July 27, 2005
Survey: Women consultants make more, but work harder
>> Read The Article
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Stage 4 Solutions In Action |
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Many high technology leaders are experiencing increases in growth this year, which in
turn fuels expanded marketing efforts. To better serve your needs, we have added a
new service to provide interim staff for your strategy and marketing teams.
Our experienced team members can augment your organization during crunch periods
or when you cannot fill openings with full time staff in time to meet market demands.
Our seasoned professionals can begin adding value immediately. Please contact us
at
if we can be of service to you.
Thanks!
Niti Agrawal
Principal & Founder
Stage 4 Solutions, Inc.
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Thought Leadership |
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Services - The Hidden Advantage
As high technology product life cycles shrink and product margins become razor thin,
our clients are finding new areas of opportunity for profits and competitive advantage.
For most of you, the customers’ upgrade cycles remain at a 3 to 5 year span.
The gap between when you stop selling and manufacturing a product, and when your
customers stop using that product, continues to grow. Additionally, customers are
coming up the technology "comfort curve" and are more willing to participate in the
support of their products, so the door is open to offer more than basic support services.
These factors have created an opportunity for you in service innovation, new business
models, new implementations and competitive advantage.
Historically, most of our clients’ service and support teams have operated as cost
centers, where expense reduction is the primary goal. This traditional view of service
and support limits internal thinking and investments in new offerings. However, some
innovative companies have already used new concepts in service to reinvent themselves
or provide unique value to customers. Examples include:
- Products with the ability to self-diagnosis and troubleshoot problems - parts can be self ordered and service centers notified of additional aid required
- IBM’s transition from a hardware company to a services company. Now, IBM sells services that are delivered on IBM hardware - the "product" is now just an afterthought for the customer
- Transition of software products to service through an ASP model. Salesforce.com has perfected this model based completely on delivering a service, not a software application
You can begin making the transition from a "support as a cost center"
approach to a "services as a driver" approach by developing a clear
understanding of the value your customers gain initially and over time by using
your products. Then, by understanding usage patterns and how the products fit
into your customers’ infrastructure and business models, you can begin developing
service offerings that build on current value to customers and also fit their
internal processes. The single best way to gain such an understanding and
subsequent ideas for services, is by conducting in-depth customer interviews
with selected customers within each targeted market segment. Once you have defined
the services, you can apply traditional product definition processes to sizing the
market, gaining broad customer feedback, and understanding the competitive landscape.
In short, treat the service offering as another "product".
Stage 4 Solutions offers strategy development services to aid high technology
companies defining new product and service offerings and identifying new target
market segments. Please contact us
at
for more information.
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