Hardware and Software

Building Distribution Channels

Enterprise Internet and Software Company

An Internet services division of a much larger company had identified a need in its marketplace for a major software product and had developed an enterprise-level offering to fill that need. While initial sales came from the company's own sales force, such sales were unlikely to achieve the level of market penetration that the corporate parent expected. We helped our client develop a set of channel partners and build an internal organization to manage and extend the channels program. This program is expected to account for more than half of all sales within two years.

Post-Merger Integration

Internet and Software Services Company

Our clients, the CEOs of two Internet and software services companies, had just signed a letter of intent to merge their companies. We were retained to work with a cross-company team to address all issues of post-merger integration in parallel with the legal and financial due diligence phases of the discussions, so that the day the merger received formal approval, the companies could begin joint operations. Our work addressed all elements of the two businesses, including marketing and sales, operations, R&D, and administration. Within four weeks we developed a comprehensive plan to combine the companies, achieve a minimum 10% unit cost decrease, retain all major accounts and key staff, and complete the integration within ninety days of deal closure.

Communications Market Strategy

Electronics and System Integration Company

This $6 B division of a Fortune 50 company had developed numerous telecommunications products and service concepts in its R&D laboratory and sought help in commercializing them. We reviewed the project portfolio and identified several multi-billion dollar product ideas. We then helped the company determine which to pursue on its own, which to develop in conjunction with partners, and which to partially spin out to take advantage of the investment community's current large appetite for communications technology companies.

Channel Strategy

Computer Products

An office equipment and computer products company recognized that the growth in its markets was shifting from the high-priced office and IT-shop equipment, which it had traditionally sold with its direct sales force, toward network printers sold through PC channels. The problem was that while the company had some competitive printers, its previous attempts to sell through PC channels had failed. We helped our client determine which products to sell through which channels, develop value propositions that would lead to channel share worth $1 B+ in new revenues among tier one and tier two PC distributors, and develop processes to manage channel conflict between the indirect channels organization and the direct sales force. The key market analysis concerned the channel partners' needs when viewed as customers of our client.

New Product Process

Electronic Information Services

A $500 M print and electronic information services company was concerned that, as its organization was transitioning from purely print-based products to a family that mixed both print and electronically delivered output, the new product development process was near breakdown. In short, the technology, editorial, marketing, and sales functions were constantly at loggerheads. We worked with staff in these four functions to develop a revised process, shortened cycle time by a third, and smoothed a process that had operated with so much rancor. In a later assignment, we developed an information technology plan for this client to enable it to focus its limited resources on applications of greatest value. In this plan, we identified which functions could be safely outsourced and which had to be kept in house because of their criticality to our client's core functions.

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