Conference ilbbak::us_sales_service

72.0. ""LET's GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!"" by SUBWAY::DARCY () Thu Jan 30 1992 10:41

    Having had confirmed that this IS the place, allow me to share with you
    (albeit soemwhat in advance) what is being planned for one portion of
    the US Upside Plan.
    
    First - a brief synopsis of what the Upside Plan is all about.  As many
    of us recently heard via our Q2 "earnings" report, our business needs a
    boost; big time!  Earnings were down, our stock is below where it ought
    to be, and the economy & industry seems deep in a state of winter 
    hibernation.  As such, we have made a conscious decission to focus our
    efforts in several specific areas for the remainder of this fiscal year
    (I believe an additional benefit will be realized in the generation of
    a significant FY93 pipeline; one which will enable us to get out of the
    competitive gate quickly come July 1.)
    
    This focus is intended to close additonal business which is not
    currently reflected in our forecast; (i.e. the upside part).  One may
    anticipate a concerted, team effort to selling (and winning) these
    opportunities.  We are planning specific activities to support the
    Account Selling Teams, including customer events, training and
    additional, specialized resources.
    
    Now, for the "one portion" I mentioned above -
    
    I have the honor of representing Digital in the world(s) of Image &
    Multimedia, a market which we have left virtually untouched to date. 
    For those who are unfamiliar with these technologies, I'd suggest you
    begin reading up on them.  Neary a customer today is not thinking about
    it, doing some form of pilot or already heading into production using
    Image, Voice & Video data.
    
    THIS PROGRAM WILL BE INFINITELY SUCCESSFUL!!!  I don't believe any of
    us realize the full potential of this market.  Depending on who's
    analysis you subscribe to (Gartner, BISCAP, Price Waterhouse, TSC,
    Andersen, etc.) the projections range from $40Billion - $100 Billion by
    1995!  This will become the single largest opportunity any of us will
    see in our professional lives.
    
    I'M EXCITED!!!  Despite what some are saying, what others are writing
    and what many of us are reading - Digital is positioned (today) not to
    compete - but to dominate this market.  50% market share is a modest
    goal and one we should easilly eclipse.
    
    Allow me to explain "Why", and then "How" we'll achieve this.
    
    Why are we in such a good position; why will we emerge as the
    industry's premiere solutions provider in these technologies; why will
    we be so successful?  Because we want to be!
    
    Look at what's happening around our industry today.  The real benefit
    customers perceive they'll realize by employing Image & Mulimedia is
    not hidden within the tools themself.  The real benefit they perceive
    is this is the first opportunity they have had since computing was
    born, some 40 years ago - commercially, to re-do HOW they do business. 
    My contention is that for the past 30-40 years customers have been
    forced to apply bandaids to less than efficient processes.  Has the IBM
    architecture really changed since the days of the 360?  I think not. 
    The paradigm shift we are witnessing is away from the tools and
    technology and focusing on the process or methodology.  The User
    community has arisen as a key decission maker; senior management are
    active participants in plotting IS strategy; computers are finally
    being viewed as what they were originally intended to be - a tool to
    implement the business vision.  For all too long, we have allowed the
    tools an technology to dictate How we did business.  Bill Heffner has
    stated it very well - "there is a shift from Computer literate people,
    to people literate computers".
    
    Multimedia is the crossroads of Business and Technology.  It is where
    the process meets the tool; where all aspects of technology merge -
    database, networks, storage, displays, CPUs, documents, software,
    services, etc., etc., etc.
    
    Why are we in such an envious position, and why am I adapting a "Mad
    Magazine" philosophy of "What, me worry?"  Simple - who else has FDDI,
    who else has Alpha, who else has integrated Image, Voice & Video as
    standard data types along with Text, Graphics and Spreadsheets, who
    else has spans desktop to data center?  No-one!
    
    IBM and other Mainframe mentalities are going to be dealt a severe
    blow, one which will seriously impact their corporate purse.  I welcome
    a competitive situation with this "self proclaimed" industry leader -
    it's no contest!  Let's talk about an architecture which was designed
    to handle text data streams; let's talk about a database architecture
    which fails to support BLOB data (binary large objects - i.e. Image,
    Voice & Video); let's talk about a network vision (SAA) which fails to
    recognize the significant bandwidth requirements of these data types;
    let's talk about a Document Architecture still designed for text data
    streams; let's talk about character cell displays and printers.  
    
    I thank IBM for doing such a wonderful job from the 60's through the
    80's in promoting this style of computing.  It is in this success that
    the opportunities of the 90's have been born.
    
    How are we going to do this?
    
    We are going to simplify.  There is no mystique nor magic to selling
    our Image/Multimedia story.  It is based on the same skills we have
    acquired since our inception; born in Ken's vision way back when. 
    Distributed processing; client/server computing; NAS; Open Systems
    based on industry standards.
    
    We are going to focus.  We will be announcing a number of quick-quote,
    packaged solutions which will make the job of selling and the task of
    deciding (for customers) that much easier.
    
    We are going to focus.  We already are identifying and compiling a
    pipeline of known opportunities which make these goals achieveable.
    
    We are serving notice.  When it comes to this market, it belongs to
    Digital.  You want to compete than you're going to compete on our terms
    and on our turf and we don't take kindly to strangers in our territory.
    
    For those amongst us who are boxing fans -
    
    "LET's GET READY TO R-U-M-B-L-E ! ! !"
    
    Our customers, our competitors and even ourselves have never before
    witnessed the force which is being unleashed.  Never before has this
    industry had to deal with the collective genius and collective energies
    we are deploying as Digital Equipment Corporation!
    
    I look forward to your help and your support.
    
    Sincerely,
    Tom Darcy

    Will we offer multimedia to the large mass of PC users?  There are
    already MANY multimedia solutions on PC's.  Granted, they don't have
    the glitz and sizzle of a DECstation 5000, and fancy datatypes, but
    they are MUCH less expensive than our solutions.
    

    We are focusing on true Client/Server Multimedia computing.  One can't
    say "Client" without thinking PC.  In answer to your question - YES!,
    and soon.
    
    re;
    

    
    Tom, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but upside plans require several 
    things before they can really generate an upside.  You have an idea and 
    have identified a hot emerging technology.  This does not generate any 
    upside for the company until we have something to execute and can 
    execute without taking resources or our eye off the things already in 
    the forecast.

    o  Focus on specific customers 

       -  new names..... New Accounts
       -  new faces..... New Departments or Applications in existing Accts
       -  old friends... Classic Comfort Zone, Installed Base
       -  old flames.... The "DECUS" Crowd, with Love/Hate with us

    o  Industry Messages and Context

    o  A product to sell, not a concept or architecture

    o  A well constructed tactical marketing plan which will include

       -  Training and awareness
       -  Competitive Tip Sheets
       -  Demand Generation Tailored to target Customers
       -  Pilot wins
       -  Merchandise success
       -  Repeat loop until market owned

    o  A proactive resource team deployed to assist in making sales 
       quickly, efficiently and to be able to capture all learned knowledge 
       about the competition and the solution.  This has to be carefully 
       crafted to make sure you are not robbing the "blood forecast" of 
       it's planned resources.

    I hope this helps and guides your efforts.  We need all of the good 
    upside plans that we can get.  

Regards,
Scott



    

    Tom, I agree with your enthusiam. I share it and am ready to promote
    the heck out of our products. When will we be able to deliver? I hope
    we are not waiting for all the pieces to be in place, i.e., the
    networking, the FDDI, the client-server software, etc. Why not release
    a standalone version today with a message that it will be able to be
    incorporated into the client-server environment when those pieces are
    available. Surely we can sell out clients that we are committed to the
    client-server environment, given our Workstation strategy and
    committment to X-windows, OSF/1, etc.
    
    My frustration is that, while we are waiting for all the pieces, IBM is
    eating our MM lunch with a product they can deliver. We had IVIS
    several years ago and, in spite of our jump on the technology, we still
    find ourselves playing catchup.
    
    HELP !!!!!!!!
    
    Gil