Conference nesbit::modular

    

    Customer has our board in hand.  They also have our board from Prolog. 
    They are asking about the differences.

    How do we compete against Prolog?  There are no "rules of engagement"
    defining when Prolog reps (or Manufacturers Reps) can sell the board
    Prolog designed for us.  Is there is a *compelling* reason to buy that
    board from us?

    This just happened.  The engineer just called and asked me why he
    should use a middle-company when it's clear who makes the board for us.
    They can go directly to them for problems and tweaks-- right to their
    (Prolog's) engineering, rather than thru us for the same board?  In
    this case (and unknown to us until today), they have been using Prolog
    for a year now.  Thanks to Digital, the fan reliability and thermal
    issues have been improved.

    I think were done'for here.  I suppose the post-mortem lesson learned
    is that for major OEMs (I'll share now that this was Westinghouse
    Electric), an Intel SBC component alone is probably not a good
    opportunity to pursue.  If Prolog is already in there, or plans to be,
    I guess the best thing for us as a Prolog partner is to walk away. We
    can be the honorable half of this arrangement (albeit it's always a
    win-win for Prolog; win/lose for Digital -- admittedly, that bothers
    me.)  Any other behavior stands the chance, in some way, of bashing
    Prolog, or undercutting their sales reps. 


    Steve

    Steve,
    
    I have forwarded your note to the product marketing manager,
    Wayne Adams.  
    
    Diana

Some viewpoints on competing / not competing with Prolog.

Prolog as a competitor, collaborator, a customer....and a
supplying vendor.

 Or are we partnering with them?
--------------------------------
At an engineering level, there are multiple projects underway...some of 
them entail joint design work. This is for DMCC P6 and the CompactPCI 
program...this can be viewed as partnering.  

There is no joint selling activities anywhere
---------------------------------------------
...we should protect our customer base.  There will be 
situations where both companies will compete. We are in the running 
together at GE Medical and Westinghouse. WE have lost ADE to Pro-log.
In Europe, we are on a trial basis addressing leads in large accounts. 
Pro-log can not close large accounts in Europe, because they depend on 
indirect channels.  Prolog realizes they would lose the business, so 
instead, if Digital closes the business, then would get revenue for the
boards...by us buying boards through the DMCC program. 

Are they still our competitors?
-------------------------------
In todays marketplace, all companies are partners/collaboraters,
competitors, and customers at the same time. "I steal this phrase from 
former VP Bill Johnson". In the case of Prolog:
	- we compete in sales in many territories
	- we collaborate in standards committees
	- we collaborate around new technology designs that both
	  companies plan to sell
	- we are a customer of Pro-log's for their P5 product...and 
	  eventually others.
	- Pro-log has inquired about buying backplanes and PMC options...
	  thus they could become a customer of Digital's

Engineering the Digital Intel board
-----------------------------------
In general, we should have a good story to tell an OEM
on why we should win over Pro-log.  This will require a
non-disclosure though.  The story centers on how Digital has
taken the standard Pro-log board, evaluated it, then specified
and then tested to the environmental specs and mechanical
specs a  board should adhere to.  Prolog as a supplier
complied to make the changes or else would not have our 
business.  The key point is that even though a SBC can be
viewed as a commodity in the market, there are differences
between products and the engineering integrity that goes into
the board.  Some of the changes we have gone through that
were not found in the original Pro-log design or were part of
a less than adequate design:
	- original board PCB was off a bit in complying with 
	  PCI-64 keep out area
	- placement of SIMM sockets interfered with card holder
	- edge bracket violated adjacent card fit
	- stiffener bar conflicts with some adjacent boards
	- we are spec'ing a different cache part such that
	  configs above 64MB work
	- lots of BIOS and compatiability testing within the
	  DMCC family of components
	- we are having the etch relaid out such that we achieve
	  FCC class B
There are some other arcane points....but this is a classic case
of when Digital buys out a product in the market, we do all the
testing, whereas other vendors will state they did the work, but
cut some corners.  

Not trying to downplay Prolog. Digital realizes that this is what
you typically get in the market and we chose a company that has
a can-do business attitude and a respectable engineering group
that would carry out the business and technical requirements. Our
first vendor, IBUS was less than desirable in this respect.

In the end though, Prolog benefits from Digital's engineering excellence,
because now we have improved their product offering as well.  

An OEM  needs to understand within the DMCC program, we do this 
level of quality of work for all our products...SBCs, enclosures,
backplanes, power supplies, etc....  Even though we are in a 
competitive situation now with Prolog for SBCs....what will the situation
be 6 months from now. If the OEM would align with Digital,
they could benefit from our product line and our engineering throughness
which should translate into less problems in their deployments. 
Unfortunately, we can not back this up with quantifiable data nor make
guarantees.

        
    I'll only add that I agree that for non-US opportunities, Prolog is
    remote.  Digital ERT has a much greater presence and distinct
    advantages.  But, I'll be stipulative.  When Prolog competes with the
    *same* board, not the precursor to ours, not a different flavor, but
    the same board, I just don't know we can compete [in the US].

    Even competing with a different board, surely Prolog is making use of
    what they are learning from their collaboration with us and applying that
    to their product lines.

    Nevertheless, we cannot discredit Prolog in any competitive sales
    situation and still be consistent in finding them a worthy supplier for
    our board (but not worthy supplying other boards).

    There is no solution for this situation and I'll close this stream.  I
    suppose the bottom line is...I just don't like losing, even to our
    friends.
    
    --Steve

           

    What could be more beneficial is to construct a contrast matrix of what
    did Westinghouse value and not value in Digital's offering and business
    activities in contrast to  Pro-log.  Some of the categories would be:
    
    					prolog score	digital score
    - board price
    - board functions
    - ability to modify board
    - life cycle mgt
    - ability to sell/service SBC worldwide
    -  local FAE support
    - local sales
    -other products beyond the SBC
    - ease of doing business
    - one stop shopping
    - company responsiveness
    -???  otehr relevant to project
    
    If Westinghouse scored Prolog better on all fronts, then Digital failed
    to sell value.  With each attribute, there should also be a weight,
    then the summary of weighted scores should spell out the winner.
    
    Thanks
    Wayne
    

    Hi Wayne,
    
    That matrix is an excellent idea. To be of most value, shouldn't we be
    using Prolog's scoring matrix (if the customer had used our questions,
    we'd surely have won). For example, might you see things like (don't
    know if these are valid):
    
    	focused on PICMG 
    	fast to market
    	widest product range
    	competitively priced
    	able to respond to custom requirements
    	off the shelf deliveries
    	non-Wintel OS support (OpenServer, UNIXware, Lynx,...)
    	SCSI on CPU
    
    Some of those are the same as yours in different words, and if I knew
    anything about Prolog I'm sure there'd be others, but I think it's
    important we don't accidentally miss any questions by focussing on the
    ones we like to be asked. Which ones are Prolog (and others) likely to
    be using against us ? Get good answers to those and we improve our
    future chances of winning.
    
    regards
    john

    I dis-agree that using my matrix would slant the outcome to Digital.
    If Westinghouse viewed all business attributes as equal or used a
    weighting factor of zero....then only one or two items made the deal,
    maybe price, maybe flexibility.  If Westinghouse does not care about 
    service contracts around the world or buying it directly from Prolog
    in Europe, or having a FAE in their backyard....they can not 
    influence the outcome of the matrix. 
    
    I agree there may be other items that from Westinghouse's buying
    criteria that should be added to the matrix.
    
    Wayne