Small Medium Enterprise Product Positioning Guide

Transcription

1 Small Medium Enterprise Product Positioning Guide Section 1: Introduction This document is a brief positioning guide for Avaya s range of products in the Small Medium Enterprise segment, including Multi-site and Branch Office environments. The purpose of this guide is to help you identify the optimal solution with which to focus your sales efforts for a given prospective customer. This guide is divided into three parts: Part 1 (pages 2 3) provides a quick overview of the sales positioning process Part 2 (pages 4 7) provides you with more detailed guidelines on sales positioning Part 3 (pages 8 9) provides an overview of Avaya SME solutions For detailed product comparisons, see the Small Medium Enterprise Product Comparison Matrix. SME product positioning guide

2 Part 1: Overview of the Sales Positioning Process Step 1: Qualifying the prospect First, determine the prospects expectations for a communications solution and how strategically important communication is to their business. Communications Sophistication Illustration 1.1 provides a simplified view of the types of capabilities each solution can deliver, and shows the variation in customer sophistication and strategic importance of communication.

3 Step 2: Determine Ideal System Capacity Based on the customer s current needs and projected growth rate, how big a solution will be needed? System Capacities Illustration 1.2 outlines the capacities and optimal user range for each Avaya offering. NOTE: This chart illustrates our solutions from an Avaya perspective and typical customer growth patterns. It does not take into account customer type, the customer s specific requirements or how strategic communications is to the customer s business. Step 3: Categorize the Customer by Type Decide whether the customer is Basic, Mainstream or Sophisticated. Illustration 1.3 shows the characteristics of each type.

4 Part 2: Positioning Avaya Solutions For Small Medium Enterprises Introduction To position the optimal solution you must at least have an understanding of the basic capabilities of each of the solutions in the Avaya portfolio, understand the customer requirements, and who else is in the race. Knowing who the competition is can be extremely important and a large influencer in the solution that will be best placed to beat the competition. Please use the associated Avaya Product Comparisons for Small and Medium Enterprise. This guide is precisely that, a guide: there is no one perfect solution for every company. Traditional criteria, such as line and station capacity, will simply set the parameters for the choices that can be made. In some cases, it is likely that you will have overlapping solutions from Avaya to fit the needs of a specific organization. It is up to you to make a careful assessment of client needs and factors in recommending an optimal solution, such as, but not limited to: Current capacity Expected growth rate Required sophistication (customer requirements) Strategic importance of communications (customer behavior) Qualifying a prospect Required Sophistication: Customer requirements will drive the level of sophistication expected from the solution. Asking the right set of questions will help you plot that sophistication level against Illustration 1.1, i.e., is it closer to IP Office or Communication Manager, and help you decide which solution is best to meet the needs of the customer: Communications Sophistication

5 Avaya IP Office can suit the needs of many businesses with a basic to medium/high degree of sophistication, and will allow a high degree of networking features across IP Office locations. Avaya Communication Manager-based solutions are able to provide a range from low/medium to higher sophistication needs. Strategic Importance: What value does a prospect place on the importance of communications within the business? For example is the customer a: Supplier operating 5 days by 8 hours? Professional services organization operating with longer hours and where communications are vital? Company that requires features such as redundancy to ensure business continuity? The weighting of the strategic importance of communications should also let you plot the primary solution. Competition: The quality of the competition plays an important part in the sales positioning/proposal process. Who else is in the race? This will most certainly (and should) weigh in on your decision. In particular, understanding who is competing for a particular customer may influence your decision based on price and competitive abilities. For example, natural competitors to IP Office may be Mitel, Shoretel, NEC, whereas with Communication Manager it may be Cisco. Determining Ideal System Capacity Product Capacities and Growth Rate: Avaya s philosophy is not focused on segmenting the market by size; it s about presenting the right solution based on customer needs and requirements. However, as a general rule Avaya defines separate markets as follows: System Capacities

6 Small Medium Enterprise (SME) serving users Mid Market serving 250 to 1000 users Large Enterprise serving 1000 plus users This guide focuses on selling to the Small Medium Enterprise market (SME). SME s are typically firms with up to 250 users. They may be standalone or consist of several offices across a local region or territories. Customer needs will vary greatly in this situation. To get started, first look at the customer s current size and projected growth rate. Avaya products that serve the SME have the following capacities: PARTNER ACS (up to 48 users) IP Office (up to 360 users) Communication Manager S8300 and S8400 (S8300 serves up to 450 users, S8400 up to 900 users) Calculating Projected Growth Rate: To calculate the projected growth rate, take current size and understand the 5-year compounded growth plan as a % per year. This will give you an idea of the number of projected users. Example: A prospect with 200 users now, and a projected growth rate of 5% annually, is likely to have approximately 268 users in 5 years. Valid solution choices are both IP Office and Communication Manager. Take the same company with a 10% annual growth rate and the projected users now stands at 354. Communication Manager is the only platform that should be proposed. Customer types Customers can also be categorized by type :

7 Basic Communicator Communications technology is perceived as only a necessary tool to perform business. There is little value and therefore little investment in understanding how new technologies can help their business without a compelling event. Mainstream Communicator Companies looking for the right technology at the right price (price, value conscious.) These firms will weigh their communications investment carefully, but are also willing to listen to new ideas about technology. However, these ideas must be very compelling and specific to their business. Applications such as mobility and Softphone will have been heard about but will need to be sold on the strength of cost savings, productivity, and customer service. Strategic Communicator Communications is a vital, strategic tool in the business. Communications is woven through the business processes within the organization Strategic communicators view IP Telephony and applications (Contact Center, UC etc) as leverage points to gain competitive advantage. Typically, these firms are multi-site businesses, and understand the need to centrally manage their applications. By placing the customer into one of these categories you will have a starting place for understanding requirements and aspirations. Of course, customers can fall across these categories and also may grow into the next. Illustration 1.3 is a generalization of the solutions to address different customer types. For the Basic and Mainstream customer (depending on size), PARTNER ACS and IP Office may be the best choices. As businesses move from Mainstream to Strategic, Communication Manager is the optimal platform due to its scalability and sophisticated applications. As can be seen on the chart, there is an overlap. To get the best shot at winning the business, you will need to make decisions based on customer requirements AND the competition. The solution choice can be a stepped decision.

8 Part 3: Avaya SME Product Summary (For detailed product comparisons, see the Small Medium Enterprise Product Comparison Matrix.) Avaya PARTNER Advanced Communication System (ACS) Architecture: Capacity Range: Traditional; Central processor; TDM-based key system Up to 48 stations Target Markets Typical candidates will be small law or accounting offices, restaurants, and repair shops that do not want VoIP or to merge voice/ data networks. They will be looking for a reliable, trusted key system with standard applications. PARTNER is best suited for the basic and low end of mainstream communicators. Avaya IP Office Architecture: Capacity: Single-server, Hybrid IP-based system Up to 360 stations Target Markets IP Office is the ideal solution for the small or medium enterprise with employees that wants to take advantage of the benefits of VoIP, UC and CC. IP Office can be deployed as a stand alone, multi-site SME-like locations or as part of an IP Office Small Community Networked solution where 16 sites can share a number of features, common dial plan, voice mail and centralized management. Integration to other systems can be achieved with IP trunking (H323) and QSIG. Valued features include 64 party conferencing, UC suite, UMS and Call Center reporting. IP Office can suit the needs of customer types ranging from the higher end of basic communicators to lower end of strategic communicators.

9 Avaya S8000 Series Media Server Architecture: Capacities: Server and Gateway running Linux-based Avaya Communication Manager: Maximum, Hybrid IP-Based system S8300 = 450 Stations S8400 = 900 Stations Target Markets Medium and midsize firms. S8000 servers allow for high level of sophistication and growth potential. Firms looking for extremely reliable, mission critical communications processing on an open platform will benefit from these servers. A full suite of optional Messaging, Conferencing (video and voice), CC and UC applications allows CM to be positioned from mainstream to the top end of strategic communicators. About Avaya Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information please visit Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved. Avaya and the Avaya Logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All trademarks identified by, TM or SM are registered marks, trademarks, and service marks, respectively, of Avaya Inc All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 03/09 avaya.com