IN THIS ISSUE: FEATURE STORY: The Role of Business Value Selling » Advice to Vendors - Credible ROI can make or break your next sale SearchSAP.com: Let's talk about ROI Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is Still a Vital Performance Metric in IT
	WHAT'S NEW! HP launches Change Artist campaign using IDC | Alinean research and tools SearchEnterpriseVoice: What is a good benchmark number for IP router management? Get Certified in Business Value Selling - by Alinean and IDC » Learn about Business Value Selling Best Practices and Centers of Excellence »

The Role of Business Value Selling

We've all been there.  An aggressive sales person is pitching the latest version upgrade, espousing the latest features and benefits. But the customer is more than happy to maintain their current system as there is nothing wrong with it, and they don’t see the value of the upgrade. How can the sales representative overcome the laissez-faire attitude of the customer?

Enter business value selling.

There may be true value to performing the upgrade, but the sales person has not quantified this importance to the customer. Instead of listing all of the cool features and functions the upgrade will provide - after all, that new feature will not pay for the upgrade.  The sales professional needs to prove if there is any true business value to the features and upgrade, relative to the current version, and relative to the migration and upgrade costs.

Here are some items that the sales professional may want to quantify in order to prove upgrade value, going from more direct (hard) benefits to indirect (soft) benefit potential:

1) Can the new system provide lower total cost of ownership (TCO)? – Many times, the latest upgrades are easier to maintain than prior versions, have tools for improved manageability, are faster and require less hardware, or are licensed differently leading to lower support and administrative costs. For TCO to be lower, look for savings in:

1. Less server hardware required to host the application

2. Lower database size or less instances

3. Less development / test staff for application customization / integration

4. Less application software annual maintenance and support fees

5. Lower application / database administration and support costs

6. Lower IT operations and support staff managing the infrastructure

7. Avoidance of consulting and professional services / mission critical support fees

8. Lower bandwidth consumption

2) Can the new system provide streamlined business processes? – With system upgrades new capabilities are provided, helping to streamline and automate additional business processes or share data to optimize the process. Additional improvements in business processes may yield the following benefits:

1. Task avoidance

2. Process fees and expenses

3. Reduced errors

4. Improved transactions

3) Can the new system provide improved availability and service levels? – Often, system upgrades can provide higher availability and service levels – as applications mature they become higher performance and more reliable (most of the time).  Benefits include:

1. Less downtime

2. Less performance tuning

3. Improved user productivity via higher performance

4. Improved transactions via higher performance

4) Can the new system provide higher agility? – With some system upgrades, the development and deployment team can do more with less resources, and faster. Potential Value: Value of deploying new applications / business process improvements sooner

If the sales representative cannot aggressively demonstrate the personal value an organization can bank on from the upgrade, the sales person will be shown the door. If they can prove the business value of the upgrade, they might not get the deal right away, but they have proven that they care about the customers' business, and are sure to have the upgrade become a priority in the near future.
 

Advice to Vendors - Credible ROI can make or break your next sale CIOs to IT Vendors – “Get Real on ROI” - As budget battles continue, it is becoming apparent to most CIOs that the struggles over which projects are approved, and which will fall by the way side are not over. Our research proves that the IT vendor who steps up to meet these CIO demands will experience increased sales (up to 30% increases), reduced sales cycles (30-40% reduction) and improved competitive advantage (60% more likely to get the project approved compared to the competition).  [more »] Click here to read the whole story »

Let's talk about ROI Investing in SAP is a significant decision. Wondering how to extract maximum value from an SAP upgrade? Expert Tom Pisello is on hand to help. He just answered a new batch of ROI questions. Check out the Ask the Expert section for the answers, then submit your own question for Tom. SearchSAP.com's "Ask the Experts" is a place to get your technical questions answered by leading authorities in the SAP field. Experts have been chosen by the editorial team for their knowledge of specific technology areas.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is Still a Vital Performance Metric in IT If you have recently learned that your current service provider is planning on retiring their TCO/ROI tool, do not let that news diminish the significance of the issue at hand. The importance of TCO and ROI within the Enterprise IT buying process - and as a key decision driver - continues to be a primary concern. Be market savvy, don’t let this forced transition adversely affect your sales and consulting teams. Unprecedented in our time, business leaders are demanding proof of the economic value on every major IT initiative before it commences. And TCO/ROI is still one among several critical performance metrics that will determine a project’s value... and its viability. Alinean, and its research/analyst partner IDC, are pleased to offer a quick and flexible migration path to support your sales and marketing efforts using TCO/ROI as a driver for economic value. We call it Business Value Selling and our suite of solutions is rapidly becoming the industry standard. Make the migration without reinventing the wheel Seamlessly migrate your retiring TCO / ROI toolset into a more effective and comprehensive Enterprise Business Value Selling suite from Alinean. No need to start over from square one – we will leverage your existing methodologies, metrics and the results you developed with the prior toolkits together with our TCO / ROI models and research – let us do the heavy lifting Partner with the trusted industry leaders (IDC | Alinean) in ROI / TCO tools and research No interruptions, no delays – just enhancements to your current business value selling initiatives Don’t be left hanging.  Just call us at 866.693.6271 or e-mail us at roiexpert@alinean.com for a personal consultation - and to see if your company qualifies for a special Migration Discount. It will quickly become apparent to you how Alinean can improve your ROI/TCO business value selling initiatives. Click here to learn more about Alinean's Business Value Selling suite of solutions »

WHAT'S NEW... HP launches Change Artist campaign using IDC | Alinean research and tools CEOs and CIOs who create opportunity are change artists. HP's "Change Artists" is a live webcast series that explores how they do it.  Every other month, "Change Artists" features a top CEO/CIO team that is making a difference by embracing change. Explore the ChangeArtists website - and you'll find find interactive tools that reveal areas of opportunities for change in your company;  a technology overview from CIO magazine; and revealing case studies on Fortune 500 companies. Learn More »

SearchEnterpriseVoice: What is a good benchmark number for IP router management?

Get Certified in Business Value Selling Make it official!  Attend one of IDC | Alinean ValueExpert(TM) Certification courses. The sessions are held regionally throughout the year.  Upcoming classes: » May 9, 2006 (Tuesday) in Boston, MA » June 15, 2006 (Thursday) in San Francisco, CA Register for one of our next sessions by calling 407-382-0005 x332 or via email at roiexpert@alinean.com.   Hurry! Space is very limited. For more information & a complete schedule of upcoming classes, click here »

Learn about Business Value Selling Best Practices and Centers of Excellence Join our Webinar: Thursday, April 27 2-3 pm EST Register at roiexpert@alinean.com Learn from the ROI experts how leading IT Solution Providers are using Business Value Selling to turbo-charge their market intelligence, prospecting, engagement and deal-closing processes - reducing discounting, improving sales results and gaining a competitive advantage. Join two of the IT industries thought-leaders - Tom Pisello, Alinean CEO and Founder (and former Managing VP for Gartner’s TCO practice) and Randy Perry, VP Business Value Selling Practice at IDC during our first joint Webinar on Business Value Selling.

Learn how Alinean can turbo-charge your sales with a customized business value selling solution.  Visit our web site at www.alinean.com or contact us at 407-382-0005 or ROIexpert@alinean.com. Alinean - The Business Value Selling Experts