SALESOFT, Inc.

(A) Section B : Group 6 Aman Singh 066 Aparna Giridhar 076 Isha nag 086 Naveen Murali 096 Priyamvada 106 Sanjeeth Mishra - 116

Objective: To determine if Salesoft has to promote TH in the near future or continue with PROCEED. Analysis: Persisting Issues with Sales Automation (SA) solutions - Customized solution is provided by many independent vendors, of which some proprietary solutions cannot be easily integrated - High implementation time due to incompatability - There is a need for a fully integrated solution to reduce SA implementation time, implementation costs and increase overall efficiency. - Need for sales forecast and management solutions. Why PROCEED - Long term integrated solutions provided by PROCEED covers a lot of TH functionality. - PROCEED will have a first mover advantage in the CSAS domain. - Salesoft can focus on product development and leverage on consultants domain expertise and their reach for marketing the product. - Since the product has already been sold to 5 customers and a commitment has been made for the next modules of the system, an abrupt end to PROCEED will tarnish their image and could adversely affect the future deals, be it TH or PROCEED. Why not PROCEED - Since PROCEED is meant for complex sales cycles and is suited for large organizations, convincing a large corporation to lap up on the success of a partially implemented CSAS offering by a start up would be a tough task. - Salesoft does not have sufficient working capital as of now, for the 21-30 months long deployment cycle. - High customization costs - Convincing all the potential customers about the utility of CSAS might be demanding. - The dependency on consultants could work either ways for the product. While partnering with one consultant might hamper its growth potential, not partnering with any would put a lot of stress on marketing division. - Partnership also demands complete implementation of all the modules. - Some of the effort spent on PROCEED can be leveraged for TH because TH has a lot in common with already implemented PROCEED Sales system. - Since the industry is not completely ready for CSAS, the huge size of investment and working capital could turn risky.

Why go for TH - Projected to create new accounts, serve a large customer base and generate revenue. - Freedom from consultants. - The benefits of TH can be easily quantified and hence making it easy for the sales personnel to pitch TH - With only one third the marketing cost of PROCEED, has potential to generate higher profit margins and higher market potential. - Success of TH can serve as a recognition for Salesoft to convince customers about PROCEED. - Comparatively shorter deployment cycles and lesser customization costs. Why not go with TH - Launching TH would hamper relationship with Consultants who are critical for the PROCEED - TH might distract sales focus from PROCEED and cannibalize PROCEED sales. - TH is more of an immediate solution to sales, but CSAS looks like the right choice for the long run. - Possibility of TH being viewed as a hifi CMS. - Higher competition from big players like Microsoft, IBM and many CMS players, who were entering into the market and hence lower the profit margins. Salesoft Sales Force - Constrained marketing budget and sales force size - Complexity of PROCEED makes it difficult to market and hence the need to convince the different strata of people in the organization - Comparatively, the sales personnel might find it easier to market TH. - Along with TH, the sales force must also be trained on the utility of PROCEED having domain expert sales people would help to push TH - Since selling TH involves direct communication with different clients, having domain expert sales people would help to push TH Recommendations: Launch TH o First mover advantage. o High industrial demand. o Manageable working capital and marketing costs. o Lesser the marketing effort and the time required for selling TH Offering TH at $1000 so as to skim all existing consumer surplus and revising the pricing policy at a later stage when new entrants make an entry.

Benefits of CSAS As per data provided, Firm A (Financial services) saves $7.84 million and firm B(Computer hardware) saves $44.78 million, by CSAS implemention. Refer exhibit for details. Buying Cycle for PROCEED Realization that CSAS can solve existing problems Evaluate the potential to automate the existing process Deciding how the different functions to be automated were related Evaluation of software Pilot testing CEO, VP, other top officials CEO, VP, other top officials 21-30 months 3-4 months

CEO, VP, other top officials, 2-3 months consultants CEO, VP, other top officials, 6-8 months consultants Sales Reps, Sales managers, 3-5 months MIS department, SA consultant, CSAS vendor Sales Reps, Sales managers, 3-4 months MIS department, SA consultant, CSAS vendor 4-6 months

Modification of software

Rollout

Pricing of TH It would be best to price TH a little high at $1000 initially for the following reasons:- High demand for a new sales forecast solution. - Being a new product, there is no similar product to compare against and high prices are justified - Since the sales forecast segment might face considerable price competition, it is apt to have higher profit margins in the beginning and further decide upon price revisions later, depending on the market conditions.