Conference heron::euro_swas_ai

70.0. "BUSINESS DEVEL. BRAINSTORM" by HERON::KANE () Wed Jan 25 1989 16:48

THE FOLLOWING IS A LISTING OF THE "BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT" BRAINSTORMING 
SESSION WE HAD AT THE END OF MY PRESENTATION DURING THE FORUM. I HAVE 
WRITTEN SOME NOTES AND IDENTIFIED ACTIONS AGAINST EACH ONE OF THE ITEMS.

WOULD APPRECIATE A DIALOGUE....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------



*  Sales Training   

   thoughts:-
   What's critical is first to catch the interest of Sales. I think the 
   training is easy - it's persuading them to take the time... So first, 
   how to get their interest...
 
   Two important strategies here:-
   
   - make sure they get to hear about success stories - that means having 
   the glossy "success story" handouts that are currently available and 
   can be ordered using info in our notes file.

   - make sure you have some good selected demos to show them - these are
     now avl through our notes file.

   There is plenty of material avl to do the training, once you capture the
   audience. Pls contact Pascal, Mark or myself for any help in regard to
   presentation material.

   One potential problem with respect to an across the board sales training
   approach is that it may lead to a lot of random pre-sales activities - 
   many of which will lead no where and which will absorb lots of time. 

   I think we need to be selective sales training - Strategic Accounts for
   sure only and preferably corporate accounts. ONE OF OUR GOALS MUST BE
   BE MOVE OUT OF HEAVY PRE-SALES ACTIVITY TOWARDS REAL ACTIVITIES AS 
   INDICATED BY PL72 REVENUE.

   [ actions:- I will take no particular actions here, except to support
               you when requested for materials. ]


*  Workstation piggy back

   - this will be addressed by Pascal's "knowledge Workers Station" program
     which has a target of 10% penetration into the workstation mkt. by 
     fy 90 ( i.s. one out of (10) workstation sales will include AI 
     software.   

  [ actions:- Pascal to make the Knowledge Workers Station a reality ]

 
*  Customer Service for specialized market segments ?/

  - if I recall, this was about the need to provide a customer support 
    service for products like nexpert / vde. Products like nexpert/ vde
    cannot really take off for us if we do not have this support in place:-
    - country support to filter out / clear up the more obvious problems
    - Area support to follow up on more complex problems with supplier/
      Digital Engineering Group.

 [ Actions:- Pascal and Jim to address this area ]

*  AI Road Show - demos 
 - probably too expensive and time consuming for the resource we have avl.
   It would be better to piggy back on top of other product/technology road
   shows - positioning AI as a critical integrated component / extra 
   feature...... An example of this approach would be the "knowledge 
   workers workstation".

 - Mark suggests:-

   <<Would it be useful to target general industry-specific events which
     don't have an AI focus, e.g. a couple of major mftg. shows?  This
     may catch customers who haven't latched onto AI specifically, and
     would reinforce the integration messages.>>

    Seems a good idea to me - but would have to be capable for being 
    supported by the country swas/mkt people.

*  Training of Project Managers 
   One of the problems we have in general today is a shortage of Project 
   Managers - not to mention project managers who have any training in the
   concepts of AI / Expert System Program Management Methodology. As Part
   of what I have called the "AI DIFFUSION PROGRAM" I would like to target
   project managers, business consultants, technology consultants and swas
   specialists (III & IV). I will map a plan out and see if I can get it
   rolling/Approved before next December.

 [ Actions:- JIm Kane - AI Diffusion Program ]

*  Why is Japan doing better ?? - learn from Japan

   Clearly we need to understand this better. It is possible that we will
   have some Japanese join us for the AI in Manufacturing Conference in 
   Munich (next may). I will take that opportunity to arrange for an 
   exchange of ideas and report my findings. I will also ask Pat to write
   us a note on his impressions of Japan based on this recent visit. 

 [ Actions:- Jim Kane to contact Japanese and write a short report of 
             Munich meeting.
             Pat Roach to write a note of his impressions of Japan. 
             Mark to write a note on Japan from the Finance industry view 
             I will open an entry in the notes file for the above . ]
                

*  Internal Senior Mgt. Digital - show them today or potential internal or 
   external successes.

   This is really critical to my mind. We have to take every opportunity to
   do this. We now have the materials / demos, it's just a matter of 
   seizing the opportunity when it comes our way. an example is:-
   In Febuary, Dave Stone is visiting Valbonne with the Telecom Account 
   mgrs. We plan to insure that, during the visit, Dave and Account mgrs 
   will see some real AI application demos.

   Again, we will be hosting all corporate account consultants in March for
   a (3) day technology review - we plan to make sure that AI will shine 
   through.

  [ Actions:- everybody ]


*  Get on the Multi Tec. Bandwagon
   - CASE: yes, we really need to have an AI component here - but I don't 
     have any specific initiative in mind at the moment, apart from VAX$AI.
     will work on this and come back - appreciate any inputs - Elise, I 
     believe you folks in the UK are involved with a third party in the 
     case area ??  

   - Workstations - the knowledge workers workstation

   - Graphics - it would be great if we could find an nice colour graphics
     package that could be used to build "sexy" front end user interfaces 
     for our expert systems. DVTOOL ?? well it's very expensive - perhaps 
     too much functionality for our general needs.  I wish that VI Corp 
     would come out with a subset of their product at a greatly reduced 
     price ... Anyone know of a good color cheap graphics package ??

   - Data bases - kbs and data bases certainly coming together in the 
     object oriented space - but still early days ?? Projects like 
     CONFIGURATION TRACKING SYSTEM (CTS) are moving us there... 
     Natural Language interfaces - remember (what was it called ??? 
     INTELLECT - from AICorp) - I think it's too early for natural language 
     front ends. The one big area for us is our ability in many cases to 
     link our expert systems to data bases - the integration message - 
     making better use of data with an expert layer atop the data base...
     OLTP - not clear where kbs fits in here. Bottom line, not clear, apart
     from the integration aspect. anyone any ideas ??


*  A European AI Fellowship
  - on the face of it a great idea -- a mini AI Fellowship. will need a lot
    more thinking about not to mention the resource to make it happen. 
    Bernd (Drewes) did I hear you say something about trying out this in
    Germany ???

  [ Actions:- I will look at this over the next year and come up with a 
              position.]


*  Transportation / service focus - good business opportunity
  - will try and have something on this for the next AI Forum - although 
    it's going to be a busy time over the next (5) months.. Can't guarantee
    it. It will DEFINITELY be in Forum VI if not Forum V.

[ Actions:- Jim Kane ]


*  Learn from our own failures
  - Think Germany really made a great contribution to FORUM V by sharing 
    with us the reasons for the failure of a pre-sales action.

    I really hope that we will continue to share this type of info around 
    the competency circle -  thats what it's for.

 
*  Make Expert System Program Management Methods more visible to CORP Swas

   [ Action:- Jim Kane to do as part of the AI DIFFUSION PROGRAM.]


*  Work with corporate to get decision on tools strategy.
  [ Actions:- Pascal Coutier - with support from all of us ]