| Steve,
I have been in a similar situation. There are two ways to approach
this that I have seen. The first is by playing up the central administration. Show how
it will reduce cost by requiring less people to support. This is
fairly easy, since MS has release statements along these lines that you
could "borrow" from.
The other tact, the one I prefer, is to show how the business needs are
better met with the newer/more reliable technology. For example,
explain how the ease of using attachment across a standard environment
will reduce the fax costs (a tangible savings). Also, play up the
redundancy and
multi-thread nature which should result in quicker delivery times.
Also, you can go into the public folders and how it allows information
to be centrally posted quicker then say a web solution. Its hard to go
to deep into this without knowing the customer's needs. But, I hope
this might help a little.
Phil
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| Selling messaging solutions for 5 years, I *NEVER* saw an ROI for an
email system. True ROI analysis usually produces ;
(i) a discounted cash flow with an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) that
should be greater than some nominal company financial target (e.g. IRR
better than 15% or no company capital investment is signed off)
(ii) Payback period. Investments are favoured when payback period
(i.e. time to +ve cashflow) is less than some nominal company limit
like 18 months.
Why do you think that an Exchange investment would achieve either of
the above? Maybe if you were comparing the (supposedly) higher costs
of some other existing installation then you could work on a
comparative basis and show a comparatively favourable return but I am
certain that you will never be able to produce a really healthy ROI for
Exchange or any other messaging system.
When you get ROI type resistance from customers, this is a sign that
they are either stalling you (maybe they don't understand the
non-financial benefits) or they are being stonewalled by their own
financial management. You can ask the question "what is your company's
goal for an acceptable ROI? - what was the ROI on your PABX for example?"
Messaging systems are a generally accepted "cost of doing business".
If they want real financial analysis, give them a cost-of-ownership
pitch and try and normalise the all-in COO per unit of business that
they do. e.g. "this messaging system will allow your design teams in
Europe to work more efficiently with your Far Eastern manufacturing
installations and worldwide warehousing. Once the full COO is factored
in, the costs work out to about $0.05 per design/manufacture/ship
transaction or about $47.65 per invoiced widget-lathe"
Happy selling!
/Chris/
|
| > When you get ROI type resistance from customers, this is a sign that
> they are either stalling you (maybe they don't understand the
> non-financial benefits) or they are being stonewalled by their own
> financial management. You can ask the question "what is your company's
> goal for an acceptable ROI? - what was the ROI on your PABX for example?"
You nailed it. Only this time the customer in charge of the messaging study is
trying to sell Netscape Enterprise Mail when the rest of the company is asking
why not Exchange. I think you're right. He's being stalled or stonewalled by
his own folks.
Also, He's being fed some information from Netscape via their WEB page that
they have a higher ROI then anybody else.
Thanks for responding.
Your experience has served you well. Hopefully I can learn from it and use it
to our advantage.
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