…optimise your IT investments Telling the Right Story Vendor Overview 2009

…optimise your IT investments

Telling the Right Story

Vendor Overview 2009

telling the right storyConfidential © Bloor Research 2009

Information overload

8 % of information retained by the brain

87 % of information forgotten in 4 weeks

To stick your story has to be;Created from the customers perspectiveEasy to navigateDifferentiated and in contextComplete and conciseBelievable and Consistent


Your messaging challenges

ComplexityAn ever increasing number of segments and variants to understand and addressYour world is always changing (new products, acquisitions, new people, competition)

Competing business lines

ResourceStaff under-resourced – spread thinYour team is too close to the storyAlmost impossible to have expertise in all areas

InfluenceOften seen as biased – not believableHard to reach the right people cost effectively


Meeting the challenge

What we do: Improve communication between Vendors and their Customers

What do your customers needs/wantsWhat is value are your providingWhat is the European perspective on thisWhat solutions are available and how do they compare

How we do that:

Create relevant simple, interconnected content to explain how solutions deliver value

Apply our knowledge to improve your marketing strategies and Go-to-market execution

Develop partnerships with audience owners

Interact with customers and articulate your value


Telling the story

From the customers perspectiveWith complete contextThrough an evolving map of content

Context NomenclatureBusiness valueProduct comparisonCustomer perspectiveNews

Adaptable to the readers needs


Setting the context

Where do you fit in the worldWhat problem are you solvingWho are the customersHow else can the problem be solved

Why should the customer care about your worldEnsuring you have a common languageHow: market guides, articles and wiki’s


Determine the Hooks

Understanding your customersWhat are the business issues that effect themJustifying the value you can provideCreating digestible content to communicate thisHow:

SpotlightsArticlesPrimary Research


Position for Strengths

Establishing your sweet spotWhat can/is being done to growth itPositive contextualization against the competitionHow can you justify it

Features and functionalityCustomer validationIndependent recognition

How;Product EvaluationsCustomer EvaluationsMarket Updates


Engage the Customer

Communicating your story effectivelyHow does your customer consumeWhere do they congregateHow is this changing

Keeping it relevantStaying concise and on storyStaying affordably flexibleHow;

BlogsArticlesPodcastsMicrosites


How can we help you?

CONTEXTUAL MESSAGING FRAMEWORK

Establish a independent communications platform to be leveraged across all marketing channels

Solidify and consolidate existing domain leadership/position

Cross linking of product lines

Reposition competitors using your view of the market/segments

Value based messaging

Internal Awareness/Education

Facilitation of Content leverage (staff)

New hire sales training

Competitive win/loss analysis

Internal positioning support/checkpoints

Provide a European perspective

Assist with message/packaging and pricing testing

External Sales Cycle

Facilitation of Content leverage (third parties)

Pitch to key PR contacts

Tie to customer references (what customer wanted, how it fits in to Context)

Product and solution guides

Competitive vendor comparisons

Evaluation criteria setting

Accompanying RFP

Lead-gen webinars and seminars

Community development and engagement

Primary research to support the above


Bloor at a Glance

Focused on the business value of effective Information Management

Biggest independent analyst in EMEA

All our Analysts are industry veterans

Founder member of the Bullseye Foundation

1000+ articles, reports & papers published per annum

Our partner program maximises end user reach and influence

25 million impressions, 1+ million uniques, 300k+ subscribers


Research Focus & Coverage

Information Management Philip HowardData Security Nigel StanleyAnalysis (Search, BI, ECM) Gerry BrownData Storage Peter WilliamsContent Management Bharat Mistry

IT Agility Dr Richard SykesInfrastructure (SaaS, SOA) Martin BanksProcess Simon HollowayCollaboration and Communications Carl PotterAccess Control Nigel Stanley

Business IssuesIT Governance David NorfolkCompliance & Regulation Peter HoweAccessibility Peter Abrahams

+ Market driver research on 24 industry domains


Customers


Archive


Services/Artifacts

Spotlight Papers, White Papers

Product EvaluationsInComparison (competitive analysis of multi vendors)

InDetails (Specific product details on single vendor)

Customer EvaluationsInPerspective (end-user views of vendors/products)

ReportsBullseye (Overview of a full domain)

Market update (Bullseye mini updates)

Surveys (RapidSurvey, Spotlight survey, Emergent Demand)

Analyst time (quotes for press releases, on-site consulting, speaking engagements, customer days, etc.)

Available in: Annual subscriptionOn-demandPackages


Introducing Bullseye

The first open standard methodology for comparing vendors and products

Governed and maintained by a Non profit body (much like Web or Linux models)Shows more than a single view of market positionClose to real-time views with frequent updates based on vendor and product evolution


How is Bullseye different?

Results are published and available to any organization An ‘Open source’ approach increases uptake and intellectual inputAssessments are made on an objective basis by trained practitioners Arbitration to ensure fairness, independence and qualityThe data collected is used to create multi-dimensional views of the products strengths and weaknessesBullseye can be dynamically configured to highlight whatever attributes the user valuesVendors can influence the frame of reference


Bullseye Methodology

DOMAIN STRUCTUREAll ICT technologies are grouped, top down, within a decreasing number of primary domainsFor each domain there is a list of recognised sub-domainsEach domain has a schema made up of a hierarchy of Master, Generic and Specific attributes

BENCHMARKINGAttribute benchmark is based on what the optimal product could be (the nirvana solution)The schema explains how each attribute should be measure and its weighting based on degree of importanceSchema’s for sub domains are created by just altering the weightingsA master database of assessments is maintained centrally with a web service interface

• Policy, governance and standards• Network and communication infrastructure• Datacenter infrastructure• Personal computing platforms• Collaboration• Telephony• User interface• Integration• Infrastructure Management• Data storage• Data assurance• Data retrieval• Data movement• Application development• Application deployment• User Productivity (office)• Financial Applications• Supply Chain Applications• Customer Applications• Resource Applications• Process Applications• Access Control• Enterprise Data Protection• Threat Management• Services


Ranking on Methodology

Top down approach based on ^ primary attributes

Commercial TechnologyFunctionalityEase of UseValueSupport and coverage

PersonalizationBuyers can highlight their own technical or solutions attributesThey can develop comparisons using the graphics that best fit their orgWeightings can be adjusted based on personal priorityMultiple Third parties can support the buyer based on a single frame of reference


Landscape Bullseye View entire vendor ranking at high level3 standard segments

–Champion–Challenger–Innovator

Segment nomenclature adaptable to vehicles (i.e., when communicating Innovation, segments could be champion, technology, solution)

Solution BullseyeDrill down to specific vendor/products to see performance against primary criteria

This is based on the idea of the scatter pattern (shooting)This can be adapted to show best fit of a product and supplier based on user’s own requirements. User selects number of attributes (from 6-12) and group around clear decision making dimensions.The smaller the shaded area, the better the fit to the users needs.

Ranking is used in multiple ways…

Documents

…optimise your IT investments Telling the Right Story Vendor Overview 2009