ICT SYSTEMS MARKETING PLAN

Transcription

1 ICT SYSTEMS MARKETING PLAN by Ladan Mehrabi Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, 2006 Bachelors Degree in Electronics Engineering, Tehran Azad University, 2001 PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In the Faculty of Business Administration Ladan Mehrabi, 2009 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2009 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for Fair Dealing. Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately.

2 Approval Name: Degree: Title of Project: Ladan Mehrabi Master of Business Administration ICT Systems Marketing Plan Supervisory Committee: Dr. Michael Parent Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Faculty of Business Administration Dr. Neil R. Abramson Second Reader Associate Professor of Strategy Faculty of Business Administration Date Approved: ii

3 Abstract This thesis is a marketing plan for ICT Systems to help the company increase its sales and market share. This paper examines the current status of the organization to determine measurable financial and marketing objectives for the year In this plan, we analyse the market and competitors as well as the internal capabilities of ICT Systems. Market analysis helps ICT Systems to determine its primary and secondary target markets. It would also help the company to determine whether or not product development is required. Careful analysis of the company s internal resources as well as its external environment helps ICT Systems to find opportunities and prevent threats. The marketing objectives of this plan are clearly defined. Tactical marketing programs including product, pricing, distribution, and promotion tactics are planned to achieve the objectives of this plan. The implementation plan section covers the timeline and tasks of people responsible for executing the plan. iii

4 Acknowledgements Thank you to my husband, Arash, who supported, provided information, and encouraged me to complete this work. I would like to dedicate this thesis to him. Also, I would like to extend my acknowledgements to all my MBA professors and my supervisor Dr. Michael Parent who taught, inspired, and made the completion of this work possible. iv

5 Table of Contents Approval...ii Abstract... iii Acknowledgements...iv Table of Contents...v List of Figures...vii List of Tables... viii 1: Purpose and Background...1 2: Situational Analysis Current Product Analysis Networking Solutions and Products Consulting and Professional Services Managed Services Pricing Distribution Promotion Target Market Analysis Economic Environment Competitors Analysis Competitor A Competitor B Competitor D Competitor C Large Telcos (Bell and Telus) Key Competitive Differentiators Five Forces Analysis Rivalry Among Existing Competitors Threat of Entry Threat of Substitutes Power of Suppliers Power of Customers Key Success Factors Relationship with Customers Relationship with Suppliers Technical Expertise Reputation Financial Analysis Summary of Current Situation ICT Systems SWOT Analysis...30 v

6 3: Marketing Strategy and Objectives Marketing Strategy Market Penetration Strategy Product Development Strategy Financial Objectives Marketing Objectives : Tactical Marketing Programs Target Market Tactics Product Tactics Remote Network Management and Monitoring Services Network Device Coverage (Cisco Smart Care System) WebEx TelePresence Pricing Tactics Professional Services and Consulting: Product Resale Solutions Pricing Options and Terms Distribution Tactics Promotion Tactics Personal Selling Website Events/ Seminars Web Advertising E-Newsletter Campaigns Co-branded Call Centre Campaigns Market Research Tactics : Marketing Budget...64 Spending Requirements : Performance Analysis : Implementation Plan...68 List of References...70 Works Consulted:...70 Websites Consulted:...70 vi

7 List of Figures Figure 1: Revenue Breakdown...29 vii

8 List of Tables Table 1 - Competitors' strength and weakness analysis...19 Table 2 - Current Revenues Breakdown...29 Table 3 - Current Revenues Breakdown...66 Table 4 Implementation tasks and timelines...69 viii

9 1: Purpose and Background The purpose of this marketing plan is to be used as a yearly review and planning document to continue growth of ICT Systems existing products. This plan includes specific financial and marketing objectives that are set to achieve in the year ICT Systems - founded in is a small information and communication technology solution provider for enterprise, medium and small businesses. ICT Systems founders have taken their expertise and experiences from successful and fast growing organizations and offer that wealth of knowledge to their clients. Over its short existence, ICT Systems has achieved significant growth in terms of both revenue and the number of people employed. The company currently employs eight employees, each having many years of experience in the areas of networking, security, wireless, and IP Telephony. ICT Systems is a certified premier partner and a value added reseller of Cisco Systems, a leading-edge telecommunication equipment provider. This partnership has been improved over the years of its existence. ICT Systems is also partner with other major vendors like IMB, HP, WebEx, RSA, WebSense, and VMware. Today 97% of ICT Systems revenue is generated from selling Cisco Systems technologies, products, and solutions. The company intends to increase its share of the market from selling other vendors products and service, but the whole focus and purpose of this plan is on Cisco Systems products and not the other vendors. 1

10 2: Situational Analysis 2.1 Current Product Analysis ICT Systems offers Information Communication Technology solutions, products, and professional consulting services to business customers. Currently the company categorizes its products/services under the following portfolios: Networking Solutions and Products ICT Systems Networking Solutions and Products portfolio is designed for businesses of all sizes that want to use Information Technology as a strategic tool to increase the profitability of their business. Businesses today strive to increase operational efficiency and employees productivity. ICT Systems networking solutions help businesses to gain competitive advantage over their rivals by increasing their operational efficiency and employees productivity. ICT Systems provides customized and unique solutions to its business customers to meet their businesses needs whether the need is implementing a new technology such as IP Telephony or just simply upgrading the security of their networking systems. In other words, ICT Systems offers its wealth of knowledge and expertise in the area of networking to its customers to help them to increase the profitability of their business. ICT Systems offers each client a unique and customized networking solution. The project normally starts by ICT Systems experienced employees analysing the client s business challenge and recommending a solution that improves the bottom line of the 2

11 client s business. ICT Systems always makes sure that the IT strategy of their clients is aligned with their business strategy. In some cases, in order to implement a solution, the client needs to purchase networking infrastructure equipments that ICT Systems sells. There are also cases, in which a client needs to only purchase and implement equipment and no network design is required. In these cases, the transaction would simply be a product resale. Even though ICT Systems is partnered with several vendors, the company mainly focuses on reselling Cisco Systems products and majority of its business comes from implementing and reselling Cisco Systems various products and solutions. These include: Networking Systems A central network connects all local and remote employees and provides them with access to the same business applications and services. ICT Systems networking solutions using core networking functions including routing, switching, security, and WAN enables organizations to communicate securely across the Internet with their employees as well as their customers from anywhere. This manageable central network helps to reduce businesses operating expenses Collaboration The worldwide trend towards globalization, virtualization, and mobility requires organizations specially enterprises to have a reliable communication network on which employees from various locations can communicate effectively and securely to accelerate decision-making. ICT Systems utilizes Cisco Unified Communication technologies such as IP Telephony to help its clients to streamline and accelerate their communication 3

12 process to increase productivity and gain competitive advantage through speed. In addition, using Cisco WebEx software, ICT Systems helps its clients to increase their employees productivity through effective real-time online communication Security Today s businesses require a secure network to protect their data as well as their customers data, defend against botnets, and comply with regulations. ICT Systems design a trusted infrastructure for its clients to protect their business against disruptions Wireless and Mobility Using Cisco wireless technology, ICT Systems helps its clients to increase mobility of their business and their employees. The mobility solution creates a reliable wireless network that empowers mobile workers by enabling them to have real-time data access Data Center ICT Systems data center solutions helps business customers to build and manage a reliable date center using Cisco switching products Consulting and Professional Services ICT Systems offers consulting and professional services to those clients who already have an IT department in their organizations but lack specific expertise. ICT Systems has extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of many networking technologies and solutions something that not too many clients or even other resellers and service providers have. Therefore, ICT Systems provides clients that need subject 4

13 matter expertise in the area of networking with knowledge and expertise required to design their network. ICT Systems also assist with clients IT operation and provides support. In addition, ICT Systems offers professional and consulting services to help to implement products acquired from other sources. For example, in many occasions, customers purchase products from large Telcos such as Telus or Bell. These Telcos usually lack to provide strong support and implementation services. Therefore, customers choose to hire ICT Systems to help them with implementation. A typical engagement is either under a Statement of Work (SoW) framework where pricing is estimated based on tasks that need to be completed and amount of work required, or simply an hourly charge basis Managed Services ICT System offers managed services to clients who want to outsource a network support or operation function. Under this model a contract is signed that outlines the service provided to the customer and the level of response expected from ICT Systems. These contracts are usually based on certain hours of services for a monthly cost Pricing Consulting Services The pricing for consulting services is usually predetermined based on what market bears and what competitors charge. In some circumstances a different rate may be offered taking into consideration parameters such as the length of engagement, skill set of consultants, or expertise level required for the job. 5

14 Product Resale Pricing on the product resale is determined on a case-by-case basis and is a factor of many parameters including cost, market, deal size, and profit margin. Products costs can vary based on product line, target market, and current promotions and programs offered by the vendor. There is usually a predefined discount off the list price offered to resellers such as ICT Systems. There are also additional incentives and promotions offered that could affect the discount level ICT Systems receives from its suppliers. ICT Systems general pricing strategy is not to sell solely on price because the service offering is much differentiated and not price sensitive. However, when it comes to only product resale transactions where subject matter expertise and professional services not required, there are special considerations given to market prices and what other resellers offer in terms of pricing and discounts. There is some flexibility on pricing for larger deals, as there is usually a bigger competition. Also, since the dollar amount of margins higher, it may allow for lower percentage in margin. i.e. a deviation from target margin percentage may be allowed if the overall profit is still within reasonable range. ICT Systems considers the competition and cost while setting prices. However, the prices should always provide a healthy profit margin to ensure overall profitability of the company Distribution ICT Systems uses a direct channel of distribution to provide information and communication technology solutions to its customers. The direct channel of distribution using a promotional method of direct selling provides an opportunity for ICT Systems to differentiate its offerings. Each one-on-one interaction between the sales 6

15 person/consultant and the potential customer would allow ICT Systems to learn about the customer business needs and provide a tailored solution to solve the client s problem and help the bottom line of their business. This could also provide ICT Systems with an opportunity to offer complementary products or services to its customers and generate revenue from multiple offerings Promotion Currently ICT Systems promotes its products or services through the following promotional activities: Personal Selling ICT Systems engages in personal selling activities to sell products or services to its prospects as well as existing clients. The personal selling process involves narrowing down and analyzing the lead list to identify potential customers or prospects, identifying who influences the purchasing decision, preparing sales call, understanding the customer s business to be able to provide solutions and solve problems, preparing presentation, creating interest by making sales presentation, and finally closing the sale. The company has recently hired a mid-level sales person to increase its number of customers. The sales person performs sales duties as well as little marketing function such as creating collaterals and etc. ICT Systems sales management and process still needs a lot of development and improvement Partner Referral ICT Systems enjoys a very good reputation as a high skills set qualified company with all of its partners specially Cisco Systems. Therefore, many of the customers are 7

16 referred by Cisco Systems. Being a premier partner, ICT Systems leverages referrals from Cisco Systems as an integral part of how it conducts business Customer Referral/ Word of Mouth ICT Systems continues to strengthen its relationship with its customers and use its track record of success as a reference to obtain new projects from its existing customers and attract new customers. The company s good reputation with its clients has provided a great opportunity for ICT Systems to be referred to new prospects through its existing clients Partnership/ Alliances ICT Systems strength in skills and expertise of its consultants is a weakness of its bigger competitors that have a much bigger customer base and sales force but sometimes lack on project delivery. This represents an opportunity for ICT Systems to work with other companies who offer similar services and provide consulting services for their projects. In other words, these competitors use ICT Systems knowledge and expertise in implementation and project delivery as a complement service to their products Website ICT Systems website is being used as a promotional tool to provide information, create interests, and allow product comparison. The website has been created four years ago and has not been updated since. Unfortunately, the company does not have resources to constantly monitor and update its website information. The website design and its content is outdated and not a good representation of the brand. The website needs 8

17 improvement and constant content update. This problem will be addressed later in the planning section Public Relation Currently ICT Systems does not engage in any PR activities itself nor has it been employed any PR organizations to work for the company. However, the company has managed to obtain free publicity through its strong relationship with its major vendors/partners such as Cisco Systems. ICT Systems has been recently mentioned in one of the press released that was published by Cisco on May 25, ICT needs to leverage these opportunities to increase its brand awareness and its reputation as a boutique style high skills set company Web 2.0 ICT Systems has recently started to have a presence on social media networking sites such as Twitter. The company also has its own blog, which is updated by the sales employee. There are still a lot of room for advancement in this area, which we will discuss later in the planning section Campaigns Utilizing Cisco Systems partners marketing resources, ICT Systems coordinated with the marketing campaign manager at Cisco to launch two marketing campaigns for the company. The purpose of these campaigns are to generate leads using Cisco s call centre. The campaigns resulted in few leads in the small business market but none of these leads have been turned into real buyers yet. ICT s Account Manager is in the process of following up on the leads generated form the second campaign. Therefore, it is 9

18 early to judge the success of the second campaign. The first campaign did not lead to any deal because there were no sales employees at the time to follow up with the leads Customer Collaterals Over the past six months, ICT has created few customer collaterals and brochures. The main purpose of these brochures is to be used as an informative tool to introduce ICT Systems to potential customers. No result has been reported Marketing Over the past months, ICT Systems has used marketing as an acquisition tool to send s to its database of sales leads to invite them to learn more about ICT Systems and their offerings. No result has been reported yet. 2.2 Target Market Analysis ICT Systems uses a segmentation approach to reach its targeted customers. ICT s customers are businesses who have offices in Vancouver that are categorized into two segments: small business and medium sized and enterprise/large-sized business segments. The number of people employed by an organization defines the size of its business. Small to mid-sized businesses normally have less than 500 employees while enterprise businesses have more than 500 employees. Majority of ICT s current customers are in the enterprise segment while small to mid-sized business segment represent a growth potential. 10

19 Enterprise or large businesses usually have their own IT function in house; they need ICT Systems consultants expertise when they have a special project and shortage of experienced staff to do the project. Some small to medium sized businesses do not have their own IT function while others have less than one or two IT staff, who are not specialized. These businesses tend to outsource their IT function because they want to focus on their core competencies. According to a study by IDC, improving productivity and increasing operational efficiency is one of SMB s top priorities. This finding also reveals that a large percentage of senior executives in Canadian SMBs hold a positive view regarding Information Communication Technology (ICT) and its value to their organizations. Business decision makers believe spending in ICT will improve their operational efficiency. Nevertheless, SMBs do not invest in hiring full time IT staff. IDC reports that almost 50% of Canadian SMBs have two or less full-time equivalent IT staff on their payroll. Internal and external drivers will push SMBs to increase their ICT investments. External drivers like a need to remain competitive will play an important role in influencing SMBs Information and Communication Technology buying behaviour. Also, internal drivers such as business growth and productivity/efficiency improvement will play an important role in SMBs ICT adoption process. Furthermore, SMBs usually want managed service because they do not have the staff dedicated to Network maintenance. Therefore, they rank system management as their first priority. Also, the need for efficiency is one of SMBs top concerns. Furthermore, a survey conducted by IDC in September and October of 2008 of about 200 firms in the small to medium sized business reveals that standard segmentation 11

20 of SMBs by size or industry is limited when it comes to targeted-prospecting. Filtering SMBs according to their attitudes towards Information and Communication Technology is very important in short listing prospects. Not all SMBs have the same attitude towards IDC. Only limited percentage of companies operating in the SMB market are leading edge when it comes to ICT. These companies usually have higher ICT budgets and revenue and budget growth expectations though They strongly believe that ICT is a strategic tool and are not afraid to invest in new technologies. They invest in ICT to manage cost and drive revenue. The internal divers that encourage SMBs to invest in ICT are a believe that technologies like Internet can transform their business, a need to concentrate on their core business while outsourcing their IT management, and a need to be flexible by decentralizing IT. External drivers are a need to be competitive in the market place, grow revenue, and be more efficient to manage costs better. SMBs are increasing their software and service spending while decreasing their hardware spending. Cost saving is the most important driver of spending on ICT, and companies will only spend on ICT during recession to reduce their costs and increase their efficiency. Therefore, it is important that ICT Systems target the right segment of SMBs to maximize its return on marketing and sales dollar spending. The company should carefully look at potential buyers characteristics and their attitudes towards IT to short list prospects that are more likely to buy. Enterprise needs, on the other hand, are slightly different from SMBs needs. Enterprise businesses know that they should align their Information Technology strategy with their overall business strategy. To keep pace with the rapidly changing today s 12

21 business environment, enterprise businesses know that they have to invest in ICT solutions. Investment in ICT solutions will help enterprise businesses to reduce their operational costs, unlock their employees potential, understand their customers needs truly, outpace their competition, and make a transition to a borderless enterprise. According to study by Forester, enterprises IT departments are working towards better alignment with other strategic business areas. IT spending will continue to be stable in all areas but special emphasis will be given to security, information management, and storage hardware. Enterprise decision makers would like to see ICT as a strategic tool that enables them to differentiate themselves from their competitors. They want to integrate technology into their core functional business segments to enable their business and their employees to be more efficient and productive. They want to invest in technology to improve the efficiency of their organization in order to achieve cost reduction. Therefore, they are looking for solutions that are financially feasible with a healthy return on investment (ROI). According to a study by Forester, enterprise businesses spend 70% of their time and effort on day-to-day maintenance and support of their IT systems. As the result, they do not find enough time and resources to invest in strategic planning and using their IT as a strategic tool. This represents a good opportunity for them to outsource some part of their IT function. IT outsourcing for enterprise does not mean to loose control of their systems 100%. It means that they could outsource all or part of their systems to those who master those areas. Forester defines this type of outsourcing as strategic right sourcing. In this model, IT professionals determine which functions they should hand over to service 13

22 providers and which function of their systems they operate themselves. This means giving each job to those who are the best at running those functions efficiently. This strategic model when implemented property could reduce IT costs significantly and free up the time of IT staff to focus on strategic planning. This is why today more and more businesses realize a need to outsource day-to-day maintenance of their IT systems. Strategic right sourcing drives greater IT efficiency. We will discuss how ICT Systems plans to capitalize on this need of enterprise businesses by offering network management services. In the IT market, there is a trend towards green IT. Even though sustainability projects have fallen down the priority list in 2009 due to economic downturn, most firms have continued to engage in green IT to take advantage of cost cutting opportunities it presents (Elis Min, 2009). IT equipment recycling and PC power management has been adopted by companies but little consideration is given to energy consumption. Research shows that enterprise is doing a better job at implementing green IT initiatives while SMB to mid market businesses are still behind. The main motivating factor that encourages organizations to engage in sustainability activities is the cost saving that produces. Today customers are looking for quality in services and products as well as financial visibility. Green IT is important but not yet mission critical. Economic downturn hampered the green initiatives considerations. However, providers can still promote sustainable offerings playing the cost saving message. 2.3 Economic Environment According to a study by IDC Canada, during recession Canada s economic health rests on SMB market because this is the segment that delivers the largest growth and 14

23 creates the most jobs. Even though SMB segment does not make the news, it is the backbone of the economy. IDC Canada believes that the health of SMBs will likely determine whether Canada can recover from economic downturn. A research study by IDC reveals that recession has stimulated demand for Information Communication Technology outsourcing. This study estimates the demand for outsourcing will continue to increase through end of In the economic downturn, outsourcing is seen as one of the best ways to attain sustained cost reduction. Companies cut costs by reducing internal IT spending and their number of full time IT staff. They want to redirect all their assets to core activities that prove to be beneficial to long-term efficiency of their operation. Therefore, they increase their spending budget on outsourcing because they want to concentrate on their strategic core activities. IDC research study shows that outsourcing demand increases significantly more in larger enterprise than smaller ones. 28% of large enterprises intend to outsource some of their IT functions versus 14% of smaller enterprises. Organizations expect their IT provider to be flexible and innovative and implement solutions that build a more efficient organization both short term and long term. Large enterprises even go as far as hiring third party advisors to review and judge the quality of vendors RFPs. And, they have a tendency towards multi-sourcing, hiring different vendors and IT providers. This shows that it is very important for ICT Systems to send a consistent and well though proposal to its prospects and leave no room for error. We will discuss messaging under the promotion tactic section of this plan. Another strategy that organizations use to cut cost during economy turndown is contract renewal. Companies see the IT contract renewal as a way 15

24 to save costs. They believe they can save costs by 15% to 20% through contract renewals such as adding or deleting scopes or term extensions. Outsourcing demand is driven as part of clients cost reduction strategy and expected to increase through late 2009 and through IT outsourcing demand expected to increase even more post recession. The reason is that companies want to apply their efficiency learning through depression in their future strategic business model and gain long-term benefits. This represents a good opportunity for ICT Systems to leverage its managed service offerings. We will discuss how ICT intends to improve and expand its managed services portfolio under the future product tactics section. 2.4 Competitors Analysis There are many Information and Communication Technology solution providers and hardware vendors serving Greater Vancouver area market. Giant telcos, small startup companies, and major networking infrastructure vendors all share the market. ICT Systems main competitors serving the same market are companies like Competitor A, Competitor B, Competitor C, and Competitor D. Telcos such as Bell Canada and Telus provide some of ICT Systems services, and infrastructure equipment providers like Nortel and Mitel are Cisco s main competitors. However, for the purpose of this plan, we only focus on analysing the direct competitors Competitor A Using Cisco technologies, Competitor A offers a complete set of ICT solutions for businesses. No pricing information is available. Competitor A is the fist IT provider in 16

25 the Vancouver market with a very diverse portfolio of products. Now they have offices all over Canada. Their website is very informative and a good representation of their brand. Their marketing strategy is to provide low cost custom-tailored solutions. Competitor A works with many vendors so their focus is not solely on selling Cisco s technologies. The company has won various awards for providing quality and cost effective solutions. Competitor A has a strong sales and marketing team Competitor B Competitor B is a Cisco Systems premier partner that offers data networking solutions to business customers. Majority of their focus is on data centre products/service and do not have a strong Unified Communication portfolio. They also offer managed solutions. No pricing is available. Like Competitor A, Competitor B has several partners and offices across Canada as well as US. They offer few seminars or events in their various locations to promote their new solutions offerings. Competitor B has a strong sales and marketing team Competitor D Competitor D is also a Cisco partner that provides IT solutions to business customers. Competitor D is focused on selling Cisco products and solutions and not partner with any other vendors. They are the same size as ICT Systems and have only one office in Vancouver. However, ICT Systems employees have more experience and expertise in the field of IT. Their overall sale and marketing strategy seems week. Their strength is to retain existing customers through relationship management. 17

26 2.4.4 Competitor C Competitor C is also a Cisco partner that provides IT solutions to business customers using Cisco s technologies. Their main focus is in the Vancouver Island area and not in Vancouver. They seem to focus on selling their managed services portfolio. Their website is much more engaging and a good representation of the fact that their brand is stronger than Competitor D. They are the same size as ICT Systems Large Telcos (Bell and Telus) Bell and Telus are strong brand names and Canadian market leaders in information and communication technology. They both offer managed IT solutions and sell networking equipments to small and medium sized business customers as well as enterprise. They are generally weak in service delivery and providing post sale customer support. This is why many customers, who buy networking infrastructures and services form these telcos, hire ICT Systems for implementation, delivery, and support of their systems. Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, and Nortel provide Bell and Telus customer premise s equipments. 18

27 Table 1 - Competitors' strength and weakness analysis Company Strengths Weaknesses ICT Systems - Good technical skills and expertise on new and advanced technologies - Good service and support - Good client relationship - Good relationship with Cisco and customers - Enjoys referrals - A Premier partner (not Silver or Gold) - Weak sales and marketing - Small size only in the Vancouver market - Lack of brand recognition Competitor A - Well established - Good client base through other products and offerings - Strong marketing and sales force - Not focused on data infrastructures and telecom - Not great deal of experience and focus in Networking Competitor B - Cisco Gold partner - Strong Sales - Strong growth - May not be strong in all advanced technologies Competitor C - Voice specialization - Good market base - Strong in government sales - Strong on Vancouver Island, not in Vancouver Competitor D - Good technical ability and reputation - No strong sales and marketing - Not growth oriented - Strong brand recognition - Voice Specialization - Telco circuit provider greater opportunity for service bundling - Not structured for and focused on SMB - Customer service lacking, especially for SMB - Strong brand recognition - Voice Specialization - Telco circuit provider greater opportunity for service bundling - Not structured for and focused on SMB - Weak on delivery 19

28 2.4.6 Key Competitive Differentiators ICT Systems differentiate itself from its competitors in terms of its people, process, partnership, and satisfied customers People ICT Systems founders each have over 15 yrs of extensive experience in data networking and voice solutions. The founders set the culture of the organization and hired people who are also experts in their fields. ICT has a very flexible, knowledgeable, dependable, and talented team of people. This experienced team shares years of data networking experience, delivering data and voice solutions, and implementations. The team delivers reliable and effective Information Communication Technology solutions to its customers Process ICT Systems has a very reliable and quick delivery process. The team mastered the implementation of IT and communication solutions for clients of all sizes, and it deliver what it promises. Most large competitors might enjoy a strong brand name, but their delivery process is usually slow. This is how ICT differentiate itself and why so many clients choose ICT Systems for implementing their systems even if they purchase the product or networking equipment from another provider. Sometimes even competitors themselves decide to partner with ICT when selling infrastructure equipments to get ICT s help with implementation. 20

29 Partnership ICT Systems is a premier partner and certified reseller of Cisco Systems, the leading supplier of networking equipment and management solutions. ICT uses Cisco leading edge technology and expertise to deliver the best Information and Communication Solutions to its clients Satisfied Customers ICT Systems has proved its expertise to each one of its clients. This is why they come back to renew their service, or they refer ICT to their peers. The proven track record of success is something that ICT differentiate itself on and gives new customers a reason to choose ICT over other competitors. ICT has built a reputation as a reliable IT service provider in the Vancouver market, and this is something that sets us apart from the competition. 2.5 Five Forces Analysis In this section we will analysis Information Communication Technology industry as it relates to Greater Vancouver area. The purpose of this analysis is to determine key success factors in the industry as it relates to customers needs and competition. We would like to use this learning to plan strategies that successfully addresses the success factors we learned from analysing the industry to gain competitive advantage over our rivals Rivalry Among Existing Competitors Rivalry among existing competitors is low to moderate in the SMB market but higher in the enterprise market. There are many growing business in the SMB market. 21

30 Although there are providers in the market, the competitive concentration is still low considering the size of the market. This decreases rivalry among existing competitors. As a percentage of SMBs gain growth and increase their ICT spending, it attracts more competitors to compete in this market. This phenomenon increases rivalry among existing competitors. Overhead costs of selling to some SMBs are too high therefore decreasing rivalry in this market. Large competitors, on the other hand, very well serve the enterprise market. Therefore, it makes it difficult for other providers to compete. Large enterprise businesses normally have a luxury of receiving many RFPs because most providers go after large customers. However, lack of large competitors technical skills in certain technologies creates an opportunity for smaller providers to compete. This factor decreases rivalry. Another factor that decreases rivalry among companies targeting enterprise is personal relationship with clients. When a customer has a good relationship with a provider, it makes it difficult for other providers to obtain their business Threat of Entry Threat of entry is low to moderate. Barriers to entry are relatively high that makes it difficult for a new entrant to enter into the market. To an independent observer, barriers to entry may seem pretty low to the IT market in Vancouver. Obtain few certifications, market aggressively for a few months, and watch the profits roll in. However, the reality is not quite simple. Building relationships with the business community and a reputation is a killer barrier to the industry especially in the enterprise market. The reason is that enterprise 22

31 businesses want to work with an IT provider they know and trust. If they already have a good relationship with a provider, it is very difficult to convince them to switch to a new provider that they do not know. For a new entrant building reputation is very difficult. It is a long process that takes years of technical experience and relationship building in the industry. However, having an established relationship with customers is not as huge of a barrier when entering the SMB market. Having technical skills set is another barrier to ICT industry. Skills set is not readily available. It takes years of experience and practise in the industry. Also, in order to operate in the industry, a new entrant should obtain a partnership status with large suppliers like Cisco Systems or IBM. This requires the entrant to obtain industry certifications in advanced technologies. Obtaining these certifications is not easy. Without certifications, a new entrant cannot resell technology equipments. It takes years to build a strong partnership with a supplier. Strong partnership means enjoying discounts and referrals. As discussed earlier, suppliers refer many customers. A new entrant with a basic level of partnership cannot compete with existing providers who enjoy higher discounts and profit margin on product resells. There will, of course, be exceptions. Threat of entry into the industry by IT employees of large organizations is higher. These IT professionals could easily branch out. They can achieve a successful entry because they are already familiar with the market, have experience and skills set, and have established relationships with partners and customers. Also, large competitors who operate in a different geographical market for example Toronto can enter the Vancouver market. They already have established 23

32 relationships with suppliers and skills set. All they have to do is to familiarise themselves with the Vancouver market and build connections in the business community Threat of Substitutes Threat of substitutes is low. The major threat is the availability of internal IT staff, who have enough skills sets of different information and communication technologies. However, even though the option of hiring internal IT staff is available for enterprise customers, it is very difficult to find experienced IT professional. And, these people are normally costly to keep and retain. Majority of internal IT employees either are not very specialized in any specific technology or are so busy with day-to-day maintenance and management of an enterprise network. Most SMBs cannot even afford to hire IT professionals who have specific skill sets internally. Most of their internal employees, if any, have general knowledge of the IT environment and not enough depth of knowledge in any specific area Power of Suppliers Power of suppliers in the industry is high. Suppliers normally set the trends and lead the industry. They are the ones who provide the product that providers resell. Therefore, without them there is no product to sell. Although there are several suppliers selling similar technologies, it is a good idea for a provider to maintain strong relationship with one provider for any specific technology. This also affects the implementation, operation, and maintenance side of providers business because without a product there is no need for implementation services. One factor that increases power of suppliers is the fact that suppliers bring a lot of business to providers by referring them to 24

33 their customers. Another factor that increases their power is the fact that suppliers normally generate demand for certain technologies. This clearly affects a provider s business Power of Customers Since there are a number of companies of different sizes that offer Information Communication Technology products and services in the Vancouver market, power of customers in the industry is moderate. However, enterprise customers tend to have higher powers than small businesses because they have more choices. Large organizations like Bell or TELUS tend to overlook small deals of SMBs because the overhead costs of sales are too much to make those deals financially attractive. Technological trends increases demand hence decreasing customers power. When there is a new technology that executives believe has strategic value for their business, they have less concern about price and more about successful and timely implementation of their systems. Another factor that significantly lowers the power of customers is sense of urgency. If a customer needs to implement a technology quickly and the health of its business depends on a timely delivery of the service, s/he would be willing to accept a high price for a quick and reliable delivery. 2.6 Key Success Factors We determine the key success factors in the ICT industry as it relates to Vancouver market using our learning from our five forces analysis. The five forces framework helps us to determine the factors that allow us to gain competitive advantage in the industry. These factors are identified based on our customers needs and the nature 25

34 of competition in the industry. A detailed analysis of customers needs is under the market analysis section of this plan Relationship with Customers Building and maintaining strong relationships with customers especially in the enterprise market plays an important role in being successful in this industry. Most large businesses prefer to work with a provider they already know and trust. It is very unlikely that they switch to a new provider unless they are unhappy with the existing one. There are of course cases when price plays a part in determining who gets the business. However, in majority of cases those personal relationships are key. ICT Systems already has strong relationship with its major enterprise accounts. This is one its strengths. However, having an already established relationship does not play as strong role in the SMB market as it does in the enterprise market. This is why ICT Systems sees an opportunity to increase its number of clients in the small to medium sized business market. As identified under the barriers to entry of five forces analysis, barriers to entry to the SMB market is lower due to several reasons. First, larger competitors do not serve the SMB market properly. Therefore, those personal relationships are not built in the SMB market. Second, it is easier to enter the SMB market where there is a huge potential for growth as explained under market analysis section of this plan. The number of potential customers in the SMB market that believe spending in ICT technology will improve the bottom line of their business is increasing. 26

35 2.6.2 Relationship with Suppliers One of the most important key success factors in the industry is having strong partnership with suppliers of Information and Communication Technology. As stated under the power of suppliers analysis, these partners have high powers because of the following reasons. They set the industry trends by inventing and introducing new technologies, products, and solutions. They spend a lot of their effort to develop the market. They create demand for their products and solutions. Also, they have a list of potential customers that they refer to their strong partners such as ICT Systems. In addition, they provide large discounts only to their qualified customers. The larger of a discount a provider can get, the higher its profit margin would be. ICT Systems has a strong relationship with its major provider Cisco Systems. This is one of its strengths. This is why the company enjoys a lot of referrals from Cisco. Majority of ICT customers are referred to the company by Cisco Systems. This is clearly one of ICT s competitive advantages Technical Expertise As identified under power of customers analysis of five forces framework, technological trends increases demand significantly hence decreasing power of customers. Having strong technical expertise and knowledge of all new technology trends help an ICT provider to gain a competitive advantage. When a customer needs to implement a technology that thinks will help the business to gain competitive advantage, a provider who has the expertise in implementing the new technology will obtain the business. Having technical knowledge and expertise would also help a provider to obtain industry certification, which in turn would add creditability to its business and strengthen 27

36 its relationship with its providers. Having knowledgeable technical employees that each has years of experience in the industry is what differentiates ICT from its competitors. However, the company must spend enough resources on training and development to make sure its employees have the knowledge of the most cutting edge technologies available in the market Reputation As mentioned under the five forces analysis, customers want to do business with providers who have industry reputation for delivering the best ICT solutions. Many new customers are referred to ICT through client referrals. Therefore, it is very important to maintain a positive reputation in the industry. ICT Systems already has a good reputation in the Vancouver business market as one of the premium providers of technology solutions. However, the reputation has to be maintained. 2.7 Financial Analysis ICT Systems 2008 revenue by product channel/service offering is as shown in the table below. There are no direct marketing costs associated with any product channel, but a percentage of total marketing cost could indirectly be assigned to each product portfolio. For the purpose of this plan, we do not need a feel to assign any percentages at this time. As the company grows, the marketing cost allocation may be considered in our future planning strategies. 28

37 Table 2 - Current Revenue Breakdown tegory Revenues Percentage Managed Services $294,000 18% Cisco Resale $675,000 42% IBM Resale $42,000 3% Professional Services $588,000 37% Total $1,599, % Figure 1: Revenue Breakdown Revenue Breakdown 29

38 2.8 Summary of Current Situation ICT Systems SWOT Analysis Most of the SWOT analysis are determined using market analysis, industry analysis as well as analysis of internal capabilities of ICT Systems Strengths Experienced and knowledgeable consultants: All ICT Systems employees have an in-depth knowledge of data networking architecture and infrastructure as well as Advanced Technologies such as Network Security, Unified Communications, and Wireless. They have an average over 10 years of experience in the field of IT. This is how ICT Systems differentiate itself from competitors. Having staff with true IT experience is something that most business customers and even large competitors such as Bell lack. Therefore, when customers have a special project; they need ICT s expertise. This is one of the key success factors and ICT was able to achieve it. Short delivery process and good service and support: Unlike large competitors such as Bell and Telus, ICT Systems does not have a slow delivery process. ICT Systems customers know the company delivers what it promises. They also know that they will get a reliable technical and service support when they need it. Good relationship with Cisco Systems and Advanced Technologies specializations: Because Cisco values ICT consultants expertise, the company gets many referrals from Cisco. Also, Cisco provides a very good support system for its partners in general. There is a wealth of product, sales, and marketing information on 30

39 Cisco partners website. Having good relationship with providers is also one of the key success factors in the industry. Large network of contacts: ICT s founders have worked for the IT departments of large organizations. Therefore, they know many people in the field and enjoy the power of word of mouth marketing. Many of ICT s customers are referred by their contacts in the industry Weaknesses Marketing: ICT Systems does not have a marketing team. The company needs to start increasing its marketing effort, if it decides to grow to a certain size. Acquiring customers through world of mouth and referrals will only help the company to keep its status quo. If it wants to achieve a certain size and growth, ICT has to start formalizing and increasing its marketing activities. Founders of ICT both have strong technical background but do not have sales and marketing experience. Currently, there is no one at ICT Systems to manage marketing. There are marketing resources provided by Cisco Systems, but the company and the founders do not have time to utilize them. All the marketing tactics that needs to be implemented to help the company grow is discussed under tactical marketing programs section of this plan. Sales: ICT Systems has recently employed a mid level account manager to help the company to increase its sales. The Account Manager is mainly focused on SMBs and helping with implementation of few marketing activities such Cisco s co-branded marketing campaigns. This person is currently wearing few hats and trying to increase ICT s customers, but there is not direct sales leadership from ICT founders. As stated 31

40 before, the founders lack sales experience. Sales processes also need improvement. For example, Sales Force needs regular updates by key account holders to have an up-to-date list of leads so the Account Manager can follow up with them. All the markting tactics that we describe in this plan is for the purpose of supporting personal selling. We believe we can address the weakness of ICT Systems as it relates to sales and marketing by implementing this marketing plan Opportunities These opportunities are determined through an in depth analysis of the market as well as the industry. SMBs growth: As identified under market analysis section, there is a growth potential in the SMB market. Also, one of the key success factors is to build a strong relationship with customers. Personal relationship building does not apply to the SMB market because large competitors are not serving this market very well. Therefore, ICT Systems should take advantage of the opportunity this segment of the market offers and increase its share of the SMB market. Canadian small-sized businesses are growing fast. Executives of theses businesses believe that information and communication technology would improve their efficiency. The SMB market is not being served by large competitors very well and represents a good opportunity for ICT. Outsourcing trend: As we discussed under market analysis section, market and industry reports indicate that there is a trend towards outsourcing. Most businesses realize that they can save costs and improve their profitability if they outsource their IT function and focus on their core competencies. Even companies with an in-house IT function 32

41 prefer to bring in experienced IT consultants for their special projects instead of hiring full-time staff. This represents a good opportunity for ICT Systems to start promoting its managed services - that provide a high profit margin for the company heavily to capture a share of this opportunity Threats Larger competitors: When it comes to selling only hardware, large competitors who enjoy large discounts from their vendors beat the competition. As identified one of the key success factors in the industry is to have strong relationship with suppliers. Although ICT has a good relationship with its supplier, large competitors still get better discounts because of their economies of scale advantage. There is little room for differentiation in the networking infrastructure equipment sale. It is difficult for ICT Systems to compete solely on price because the company cannot afford to sell below its cost. Therefore, sometimes ICT only provides professional and consulting services while the equipment is purchased from large competitors such Bell or Telus. Another threat imposed by large competitors is their strong relationship with their existing enterprise customers. Having strong relationship with clients is one of the most important key success factors in this industry. Therefore, there is little chance for ICT to obtain business of those customers that are already being served by large competitors. However, there is a good opportunity for ICT to partner with its competitors to provide clients with exceptional delivery of their technology equipment. There are occasions when large competitors do not have enough technical resources to implement and deliver a new technology. This is when they need ICT s expertise. 33

42 3: Marketing Strategy and Objectives The purpose of defining our marketing strategy and objectives is to have a clear picture of what the goal of this marketing plan is and which direction we would like to take. We set clear objectives to show that this plan is no just fluff but measurable and reasonable results will be achieved by taking timely actions. 3.1 Marketing Strategy At this time, ICT Systems marketing strategies are penetration and product development strategies. Market penetration strategy is selling more of the existing products to the existing market. The reason we think market penetration strategy is a feasible strategy for the company at this time is that the market and industry analysis indicate that there is a growth potential in the SMB market. There are many customers in the small to medium sized market that are not served very well by other competitors. In addition, SMBs view of ICT has changed over the past few years. The executives of these businesses believe spending in ICT will help their business to gain competitive advantage. ICT Systems has product offerings that are suitable for this segment of the market. All the company has to do is to increase its number of customers in this market. Product development strategy is also important because one of the key success factors in the industry is technical expertise and ability to deliver and implement cutting edge technologies. Therefore, ICT Systems plans to develop new products to stay ahead of the competition by providing expertise in new technologies and trends. 34

43 3.1.1 Market Penetration Strategy ICT Systems marketing strategy is to sell more of its existing products/services to the existing small and medium sized businesses as well as enterprise market. The company strategy is to focus 80% of its sales and marketing effort on acquiring new clients within the existing market. Small to medium sized business market represents a growth opportunity, and ICT Systems strategy is to increase its share of the SMB market. Implementing innovative promotion strategies and perhaps dedicating more resources to personal selling can achieve this goal. Today, majority of ICT Systems clients are in the enterprise segment. ICT Systems marketing strategy is to retain and maintain its existing customers in the enterprise segment by finding opportunities to sell more to these existing clients. Innovative retention strategies and excellent customer service is required to successfully retain these current customers. ICT Systems seems to have no problem keeping its clients by maintaining a good relationship with them Product Development Strategy ICT Systems plans to dedicate a small percentage of its marketing effort on developing new solutions for both small to medium sized businesses as well as enterprise. We will discuss product development in the section, future product tactics, of this marketing plan. 35

44 3.2 Financial Objectives The ultimate financial goal of this plan is to increase ICT Systems total sales revenue by 100%. The goal of doubling revenue will be achieved by acquiring new customers and increasing sales to existing customers. We believe that this goal is not aggressive and achievable because of the following reasons: ICT Systems has hired a sales person recently and planned to start initiating marketing activities. We believe that planning and implementing sales and marketing initiatives will greatly help ICT Systems to enter the small to medium sized business market and capture a share of this market. All of ICT s customers have been through referrals and word of mouth so far. The 2008 revenue of 1.5 million was achieved solely through word of mouth marketing and no direct sales effort was employed. Although word of mouth marketing and getting referrals from Cisco has always been and will be the best way to acquire enterprise customers, we believe that implementing sales and marketing strategies will help ICT Systems to acquire small to mid sized customers. Today, ICT Systems does not have a strong customer base in the SMB market. In addition, ICT Systems plans to add new products or services to its current product portfolios. These additions will help the company to find new opportunities within the existing enterprise customers and to target the SMB market more successfully. Some of these new products/ services are tailored specifically to small to mid sized market and meet important needs of businesses operating in this market. While, the other new products/ services will meet the needs of ICT Systems existing enterprise customers. These new products or services and their benefits to customers will be discussed in details in the future product tactics section of this plan. 36

45 3.3 Marketing Objectives ICT Systems marketing objectives are: - To increase the number of its new small to medium sized business customers by To increase the percentage of its new enterprise customers by 10% - To increase the percentage of its existing client by 4% - To increase its brand awareness in the Vancouver business market 37

46 4: Tactical Marketing Programs This section contains descriptions of detailed tactics to be carried out to achieve the objectives and goals established in section Target Market Tactics ICT Systems continues to target small to medium sized business as well as enterprise segments. Since majority of the existing customers are in the enterprise segments and SMB segment represents a growth opportunity, ICT Systems aims to heavily target the SMB to increase its footprint in this market. Nevertheless, special consideration will be given to enterprise market to retain the existing customers and also find new opportunities within this market. ICT Systems primary target market is small business segment in Greater Vancouver area. Canadian SMBs are growing fast, and ICT Systems plans to take advantage of the huge growth potential this segment of the market offers. Executives of small businesses, who make the IT buying decisions of their company, believe that Information and Communication Technology would improve the efficiency of their organizations. The SMB market is not being served by large competitors very well and can represent a good opportunity for ICT Systems. SMBs usually do not have an IT function in house, and those who have an in-house IT function, lack experienced staff. Therefore, the likelihood they need ICT Systems help for planning, implementation, and configuration of their IT system is high. 38

47 SMBs usually want managed services because they do not have staff dedicated to network maintenance. As stated in the Market Analysis section of this plan, SMBs rank system management of their IT service as their top priority. This represents a good opportunity for ICT Systems to promote its managed service offerings to these businesses. Managed service offerings provide a good profit margin for ICT Systems; therefore, it is wise to heavily promote this portfolio to SMB customers as well as enterprise customers. As we discussed under market analysis section of this plan, enterprise businesses look to outsource all or some part of the IT function in an attempt to reduce cost during recession. The right sourcing is a new trend within the enterprise market. ICT Systems positions its products / services as properly scaled Information Technology and Communication solutions that offer SMBs flexibility, ease of management, reliability, and cost saving. ICT Systems competitive differentiation is its experienced employees, who have each over 10 years of experience in the field of IT. ICT Systems understands small to medium sized businesses needs and is able to provide them with services, products, and solutions that allows them to scale affordability and reduce their needs to manage IT systems. ICT Systems will generate additional $3 million in revenue, if the company can manage to target small to medium sized businesses successfully. ICT Systems estimates that increasing our sales and marketing effort to target SMBs will help the company to acquire 100 new clients from this segment of the market. Each client would bring about an average of $30,000 in revenue. ICT Systems secondary target market is enterprise segment. Enterprise businesses want to invest in IT infrastructure and networking solutions and services to transform 39

48 their business processes. This will result in business growth and an increase in agility, efficiency, and productivity. Most enterprises such as those in financial services or those with several braches/stores such as retail businesses need to increase the security of their business to protect their own data as well as their customers data. Most enterprises especially those with multiple offices globally are looking for ways to increase the productivity of their mobile workers and their decision making process. Therefore, mobility solutions are in high demand by these customers. Whatever the need of enterprise businesses, ICT Systems has sufficient resources and experienced employees to provide its clients with the cutting edge technologies in IT. Having enough experienced IT staff is something that most of these businesses lack. Therefore, ICT Systems provides consulting and professional services to these businesses when they need to upgrade their IT systems or implement new solutions. ICT Systems position itself to its large clients as an Information and Communication Technology solution provider that truly understands business needs of its customers. ICT Systems helps these clients to align their IT strategy with their business strategy by providing consulting services that will help to increase profitability of their business. ICT Systems differentiate itself from its other competitors by its wealth of knowledge and expertise in the field of IT. Even though majority of current customers are in the enterprise segment, ICT Systems plans to increase its number of clients in this segment by 10-20%. This will generate an estimated additional $200,000-$400,000 in sales revenues. ICT Systems other source of revenue generation will come from finding new opportunities within its existing enterprise customer utilizing Cisco Systems advanced IT solutions. The company strong partnership with Cisco Systems helps to find 40

49 various opportunities to implement Cisco s products or solutions. ICT Systems also leverages this relationship to learn about the most cutting edge products available by Cisco systems that help to improve the bottom line of business customers. 4.2 Product Tactics ICT Systems plans to continue offering its existing product portfolios while new solutions and services will be added to improve the existing portfolios. These added solutions and services would hopefully help ICT Systems to increase its market share in the SMB market and find new opportunities in the enterprise market. As discussed under the market analysis section, research indicates that small to medium sized businesses look for managed services. SMBs are the best target for managed services because they do not normally have enough IT staff to dedicate to network strategic planning as well as maintenance and monitoring. Most of these businesses have few IT employees on their payroll. As the result, they tend to outsource all or some part of their IT function. Therefore, in order to strongly capture a significant share of the SMB market in Vancouver, ICT Systems plans to improve its Managed Services portfolio by adding new products or services into this portfolio. ICT Systems primary target market is the SMB market; the company plans to acquire 100 new customers in this market by the end of Therefore, it is important to develop and strengthen products that meet the needs of small to mid sized businesses. Another important reason for improving Managed Services portfolio is the fact that this portfolio 41

50 is a high profit margin portfolio for the company. Selling more of this portfolio will contribute to the overall profitability of ICT Systems marginally. The current Managed Services portfolio will be improved by adding: Remote Network Management and Monitoring Services ICT Systems sets up a networking monitoring device at customers locations to monitor their networks remotely making sure it runs smoothly. Any network interruption will be noticed and fixed immediately by ICT. This monitoring system allows proactive response to network problems increasing availability and stability of customers network. It benefits small businesses, that do not have IT staff dedicated to network support and maintenance, by constantly monitoring their network to prevent outages. This will result in an increase in productivity and efficiency. This service allows mid-sized businesses IT staff to focus on strategic IT planning to improve the design of their network or implement new technologies instead of spending their time on administrative and time consuming network monitoring and maintenance. The networking monitoring system provides small to mid sized businesses with a peace of mind that their network is secure, reliable, and functioning optimally all the time Network Device Coverage (Cisco Smart Care System) Some network interruptions are due to defects in network devices such as routers or switches. When ICT Systems resells network devices, a client has to sign two contracts for network maintenance. One contract is signed with ICT Systems for providing network support and the other one is signed with Cisco Systems for providing device support. For example, if a device is defected, Cisco will replace it for clients. Dealing with two 42

51 contracts and two vendors can be difficult and time consuming. Therefore, under Cisco s new program, Cisco Smart Care, ICT Systems can resell the device support contract while reselling the device. As the result, for any network problem, customers will only deal with one supplier that is ICT. Customers benefits are improving the performance and security of their network through ongoing monitoring that allows ICT Systems to address problems before they effect a client s business. This will reduce the time and effort required by a client IT staff to keep their network running optimally thus increasing efficiency. This complete network monitoring and support offering will help to increase the productivity and profitability of small to mid sized businesses by improving the availability of their business applications and getting the most from their technology investments. Also, the simple contract management through a single service contract that covers all network supports simplifies a customer business process while combing the expertise and service advantages of both Cisco and ICT Systems into one single offering. In addition, ICT Systems plans to improve its Collaboration portfolio by adding the following solutions: WebEx Using Cisco s WebEx meeting software, ICT Systems helps its clients to make online collaboration easy for their employees. WebEx is a web conferencing solution that enables employees to participate in a meeting from any location using a simple PC, an Internet connection, and a phone. Using WebEx technology, employees can connect with each other at anytime and from anywhere. This new technology empowers employees 43

52 and increases their productivity. Global employees can use WebEx meeting centres to create virtual teams to work together and share information to accelerate decisionmakings, reduce travel costs, and drive revenue. Primary target market for WebEx solution is enterprise business market as well as any small to mid-sized businesses with offices across the globe. However, WebEx is not good for price sensitive clients because there are similar technologies in the market that offer similar service as WebEx at much lower price. Two similar products are Microsoft Live Meeting and Telus Web Conference. Although these similar substitutes are less expensive, they have different features. WebEx value proposition is its ease of use. Users can use any phone whether VoIP or not and a simple Internet connection to connect to others using WebEx. This is one of the new Cisco additions to their collaboration portfolio. Therefore, market development is required within the enterprise market. ICT Systems aims to find opportunities to sell WebEx to its existing enterprise customers. A key customer benefit is that WebEx is a low cost option for face-to-face meetings no need for bringing people into one location. Less travel means less carbon footprint and lower costs and operating expenses. Another benefit to customers is that WebEx facilitates information sharing through effective online meetings thus accelerating decision-making. ICT Systems value proposition to its customers are in terms of finance, productivity, quality, and security. Financial value prop is that WebEx reduces travel costs. Productivity of employees increases because WebEx enables employees to meet regularly from any location. WebEx provides a high quality collaborative environment without the cost and complexity of bringing people to one 44

53 location. ICT guarantees security through firewall, password protection, and the encryption of session content TelePresence Face to face meetings are the most effective method of communication. Global organizations spend a lot of money to send employees on business trips to facilitate those face-to-face meetings to maintain those critical business relationships. This is time consuming and not very productive. TelePresence creates the face-to-face communication experience over the network. It is easy to use and in-room controls are intuitive. People can meet from up to 48 locations in one meeting, and people appear lifelike and life-size. People can meet, share content, and video record the meeting. They can also bring collaboration applications like WebEx. TelePresence benefits enterprise businesses with multiple locations across the glob by helping them to cut travel costs, build relationships across distances and cultures, accelerate decision makings, and making organizations greener by travelling less leaving employees more time for personal leisure. Market research has shown that more and more businesses are looking to decrease their footprint on the environment. The recent realization of leading organizations that implementing environmental strategies creates profit provides IT a strategic opportunity to show green IT business value. ICT Systems helps its customers to use technology to reduce their environmental impact. The network sustainability framework helps organizations to reduce energy consumption, cut costs, and achieve greater operational efficiency. Technologies such as TelePresence will dramatically reduce travel time, costs, related energy consumption, and overall environmental impact. 45

54 ICT Systems value proposition is its expertise in designing and implementing networking solutions. Just because TelePresence uses network for connectivity, ICT Systems uses its in-depth networking experience making sure its client TelePresence service runs as smooth as their ICT delivered network service. ICT uses Cisco s technology, a leading edge technology in collaboration. Therefore, customers can rest assure that their service is reliable and flexible as ICT Systems. TelePresence, a new collaboration technology, helps global business increase their profitability through business agility. 4.3 Pricing Tactics ICT Systems current pricing decisions are as follows: Professional Services and Consulting: The pricing for consulting services is usually determined using two methods: Time multiplied by hourly (or daily) rate In this method usually an estimate of time required to complete the task or project is given to the client based on Statement of Work prepared for the project, but the final cost (price) is calculated based on actual time spent on the project and the hourly or daily rate. Factors determining the hourly rate are competitors rate, project size and duration, and client size. 46

55 Competitors rates: ICT Systems rate reflects the value and quality of the service and expertise provided by the company while it remains competitive when compared to other companies rates offering similar services. Project size and duration of engagement: ICT can offer more discount and attractive price for a large project because the high volume compensates for the low profit margin. However, for short term and incidental support assignments, there is usually more overhead involved, which needs to be factored in the rate. So usually higher rates are considered for short-term assignments. Client size: usually larger enterprise clients and public organizations are more accommodating to higher rates than smaller, cost conscious clients who don t utilize consulting services often. As such, higher rates are proposed to large organizations compared to SMB market Flat rate In a flat rate model, the scope of project is well defined and amount of time required to complete the tasks is determined. The total cost of project is then calculated from the total time estimated and the rate appropriated Product Resale The pricing for product resale is estimated considering the factors such as cost, market demand, and profit margin. Cost is the main factor in determining product price. The lower the cost, the more flexibility we have in offering a lower price. Therefore, there are initiatives to help reduce the cost: 47

56 Partner Certifications Cisco enables its partners to increase their discount level by acquiring specific industry certifications. ICT Systems has enrolled in few certification programs to take advantage of Cisco discount offerings and to strengthen its partnership. These certifications are: - Premier Certified Partner - Advanced Unified Communications Specialization - Advanced Security Specialization - Advanced Wireless LAN Specialization ICT plans to increase its number of certifications in order to achieve greater discount level form Cisco. Therefore, ICT provides its employees with the state of the art training facilities to encourage them to develop their technical skills and gain industry standards certifications Relationship with distributors Cisco Systems sells its products to its partners through designated distributors. These distributors enjoy a percentage of the profit margin. Therefore, the percentage ICT pays to these distributors affects the overall cost of products. ICT is able to get a better price from the distributors when building good relationships with them. Therefore, there are attempts to build stronger relationship with these distributors in an order to lower the costs. 48

57 The other two factors determining product costs are market demand and profit margin. ICT Systems tries to maximize its profit by maintaining a healthy profit margin. Therefore, the goal of product resale pricing is to maximize profit by pricing the products as high as possible. However, if competitors offer similar products when there is no room for differentiation, ICT lower its prices to match the competition as long as the price is not below its cost. A healthy margin needs to be achieved to cover the overhead sales and administration costs Solutions Solutions pricing model is a combination of both professional consulting and product resale modes. However, since in solution selling, sale of product drives the sale of higher margin consulting services, more flexibility can be considered for product pricing if required. This means that more attractive pricing can be offered for products in anticipation of services that will be required to implement the products. This helps to keep the overall margin of the deal (solution) in an acceptable range Also, there are repeatable solutions that can be sold over and over with no or minimal modifications. A standard phone system or firewall implementation could be examples of those. For these types of solutions, usually a flat rate service charge is considered and subsequent sales will have higher margin, as the implementation cost will be less because templates from previous projects can be reused. 49

58 ICT Systems pricing strategy is affected by few other factors when applicable. These factors are vendor promotions, market demand, and timelines. Vendors promotion: Sometimes vendors offer limited time promotions. In these cases, ICT has the ability to pass on the discount to its customers. Market demand: Customers demands are affected by internal and external factors. External factors like new technology trends, regulatory and compliance requirements, and environmental requirements such as green initiatives or disasters recovery and business continuity increase sales of particular products or technology but does not normally affects pricing because there is still enough supply. However, sometimes due to a strategic business initiative, executives or those with the buying power demand a certain technology or product. These internal factors normally favour ICT in terms of pricing. In these cases, buyers tend to be less conscious about pricing and more concerned about successful implementation of the project. In these circumstances, usually higher profit margin is achievable. Timelines: There are cases in which there is a sense of urgency from a customer to implement a solution. This provides an opportunity for ICT Systems to provide higher prices, as the customer is less concerned about the pricing and more concerned about timely and smooth delivery. These situations provide opportunities for ICT to increase its profit margin Pricing Options and Terms ICT doesn t offer any specific program for pricing outside the pricing guidelines outlined above. However, through some programs offered by the vendors, ICT can offer 50

59 leasing and financing options with very attractive rates and promotions. These facilities can be used to entice customers or increase deal sizes. These options are usually very attractive for smaller companies with tight budgets, or in cases where it is hard to have large capital budgets approved while small increases in operational budgets can be accommodated. 4.4 Distribution Tactics ICT Systems continues to use direct channel of distribution to provide Information and Communication Technology solutions as well as professional/ consulting services to its customers. ICT s employees usually go to clients location to provide professional consulting services or recommend solutions that solve the challenges of the clients business. Majority of these services are provided to customers either directly at their locations or remotely using phone, Internet, or a direct remote network access. Most after sales support services are provided remotely while some will be at the clients location. 4.5 Promotion Tactics In order to meet its marketing objectives, ICT Systems needs to increase its promotional activities significantly. Although the company has recently started to implement some promotion tactics, the current level of promotional activities is not enough to increase its customers base significantly. As identified in the section marketing objectives, ICT Systems goal is to acquire 100 new customers form the small to mid-sized business market, increase its new enterprise customers by 10%, and increase 51

60 the retention level of its existing clients by 4%. Increasing brand awareness is also in the list of objectives. These goals are not achievable unless a significant effort will be directed towards improving the current promotion tactics and implementing the new ones. In this section, we will look at each promotion areas and then identify and describe required planned changes Personal Selling ICT Systems hired its first sales employee in Dec 2008 in an attempt to acquire new clients especially in the small to mid sized business market. Up to this day, ICT Systems acquired majority of its customers through Cisco referrals and word of mouth. Almost 80% of these clients are in the enterprise market. ICT Systems had seen opportunities in the SMB market and decided to capture a share of this market in order to obtain higher growth. Personal selling is the most effective method of acquiring new customers in the Business to Business (B2B) market, and ICT Systems knew it needed to hire an actual sales person to go after small to medium sized customers. The sales person earns a base salary of $60,000 annually and an 8% commission on profit margin. The result shows that the sales objective has not been met yet. The actual sales numbers are far below the expected sales. We think this is due to lack of sales training, support, and management. Also, not having a marketing function to support sales is one of the main reasons for this problem. The Account Manager has spent a lot of his time preparing customer collaterals, presenting ICT Systems on social networking sites, and working on some other marketing tasks such as sending mass s. Although these marketing efforts to some extent are necessary, they are not the main responsibility of the sales employee. His main 52

61 responsibility should be generating sales leads and turning those leads into clients. He should also spend a lot of his efforts on building and maintaining relationships with existing and new clients. The Account Manager reports to founders of ICT Systems who have years of technical experience but not any sales and marketing experience. Lack of their experience in sales and marketing means their inability in managing the sales employee and his efforts. There is no structured sales management process and reporting in place. This resulted in the sales employee being self monitored while in reality he needs a strong manager to lead him. He does not have enough sales or marketing experience to be the one man developing and managing the sales function and being responsible for sales growth. Personal selling is the most important promotion method to be used that can help ICT Systems to meet its financial and marketing objectives. The company has already taken the first step by hiring a sales person, but the result has shown that ICT Systems is far behind meeting its sales objectives. If the current trend continues, ICT Systems will end up with spending a lot of money on the sales employee and a negative ROI. The current sales objective of ICT Systems is to acquire new clients in the small and medium sized segment. This objective is aligned with the primary marketing objective of this plan, which is to acquire 100 new customers in the SMB segment by the end of All the major competitors already operating in this segment have strong sales and marketing team. Therefore, ICT Systems needs to improve its sales function and attempt to direct all its marketing efforts towards supporting sales. The personal selling function will be improved by improving the followings: 53

62 Sales Training Information and Communication Technology changes rapidly. Everyday new products or solutions are designed and developed by Cisco Systems. Market needs also change quickly. Businesses use technology to increase their employees productivity and improve the profitability of their business. Therefore, ICT Systems technical employees with a help of a marketing consultant need to constantly develop sales training materials to support the sales personnel. Internal sales training materials should cover the followings: a detailed easy to understand description of the products/solutions/services offered by ICT Systems, pricing information, benefits to customers, value propositions, similar competitors offerings Sales Support Tools ICT Systems needs to create sales tools such as product collaterals and case studies to support sales. ICT Systems website should also be improved so it can be used as a source to provide customers with product information. Customer collaterals should be created for each product, services, or solutions offered by ICT Systems. These collaterals should provide customers with a brief description of each solution and its benefits to customers (ex. business challenges that each product or solution can solve). These collaterals should be created in the form of prints (to be handed to customers), PDF (to be sent to customers electronically), and should be used as a good source of content under the product/solution sections of the website. Case studies can be written using the solutions that ICT Systems implemented for its clients. These case studies should cover the following sections: the customer 54

63 challenge, the solution, and the result. These case studies should also be created as PDF documents to be sent to prospects when appropriate and added to website to give customers more information and insights. Salesforce.com need to be updated regularly adding new prospects information. In a small company like ICT Systems everyone should be responsible for updating Salesforce.com with newest clients as well as prospects information they have. Salesforce.com can be used as a retention tool as well as an acquisition tool. The retention and acquisition tactics will be discussed under the other promotion tactics sections Sales Management and Reporting Assuming all the necessary sales support tools and trainings will be provided to the sales person, we think the sales person should be responsible for generating leads, following up on leads, and turning those leads to potential clients. He should also spend a percentage of his time building and maintaining relationship with his existing accounts. All of ICT Systems marketing activities are designed to support personal selling. Therefore, some leads will be generated by marketing and will be provided to sales team. Monthly sales meetings will be scheduled in which the Account Manager will report to founders of the company. These reports should cover the followings: number of new acquired leads, number of new acquired actual customers, total new revenue, total new profit. Each month the sales person should meet the quota of acquiring 10 new clients specifically in the small to mid sized business market. This is aligned with the primary marketing objective of this plan, which is to acquire 100 new customers from the SMB market one year from the start of this plan. 55

64 All the other promotion tactics - that we will describe in this plan are defined to support personal selling. For example, launching direct campaigns, co-branded (Cisco and ICT Systems) call centre campaigns, and events and seminars are for the purpose of generating sales leads Website ICT Systems current website is not a good representation of the brand and capability of the company in delivering the best Information and Communication Technology solutions to its customers. ICT Systems website has not been updated since 4 years ago when the company was in its first years of existence. Since then the company has achieved significant growth in terms of revenue, product offerings, and the number of people employed. The current website does not offer much information about the current offerings, and it is not very engaging. The major competitors like Competitor A, LongView, and Competitor C all have websites that are more engaging and informative than ICT Systems website. Therefore, the plan is to improve ICT s website both in terms of content and design. The reasons for this improvement is due to competition, a need to improve the corporate image, and a need to have a complete source of product information that can be used by the sales team to refer prospects to view the website to learn more about ICT Systems and its offerings. The objectives of the website improvement project are to increase brand awareness, support personal selling, and outbid the competition. The website can be used by sales personnel as a resource to help them to promote the 56

65 company. The design of the website will be outsourced to a web design company to improve the current layout and make it more user friendly and engaging. The estimated cost based on a proposal received from Graphically Speaking is $7,660. This price includes the cost of search engine optimization so the website organically can be found though searches. The content of the website needs to be written by a marketing professional that understand ICT products and is familiar with the industry. The content should be both in the form of text and video. Recent market research studies reveal that videos are the most effective method of conveying a message online. Therefore, ICT Systems should be ahead of its competitors and provides information to customers through engaging videos. None of the competitors have video content on their websites yet. The following sections should be improved or added: products, services, solutions, case studies, events, why choose ICT, contact ICT. The solution section should describe each solution offered by ICT Systems, its benefits to customers, and ICT Systems value proposition. A video for each solution will be created as well that describes the solution and its benefits to customers. Each video will be linked under its appropriate section. The marketing employee will be responsible for content production Events/ Seminars ICT Systems has never launched any technical events or seminar. Considering the nature of the industry, we think planning and launching ongoing events and seminars is a good way of presenting ourselves to the Vancouver business market and gain more exposure. This is also an effective method for generating leads, which will directly support personal selling. These seminars can be planned as one-day events that cover a 57

66 new area of Information and Communication Technology. ICT Systems sales person will talk about a new technology and its benefits to business customers. Participants can learn and ask questions; this will provide a good opportunity for ICT Systems to learn more about customers needs and obtain their contact information. The sales person will follow up with these contacts in an attempt to turn these prospects to buyers. These seminars can be launched every quarter or every six months depending on the availability of resources. The total cost of each seminar is estimated at $ Web 2.0 ICT has opened a Twitter account and created its own blog. However, there is a need to constantly update the content of these pages to make them interesting for user to join, read, and follow. The objective of web 2.0 marketing for ICT Systems is to increase its brand awareness and the number of its new prospects. The other objective is to help ICT website to increase its traffic. Having ICT Systems to be present on social networks will help to increase website traffic. Social tagging will have a positive impact on SEO. This will help the website to appear in searches hence increasing traffic. Direct links from social networking sites to the website can significantly increase traffic to the site. Due to research that has been done by Forester Blog, we decided to define our social media strategy and increase our web 2.0 marketing efforts by adding videos to our website, hosting webinars for our client to talk about new technology trends, creating podcasts, and participating in online tech forums. According to Forester, it is too early to judge the effectiveness of any of these B2B web 2.0 marketing tactics. Therefore, we decided to stick to what we think works best for our industry and our market. Our 58

67 marketing employee would be responsible for coordinating and implementing all web 2.0 marketing initiatives Advertising ICT Systems has never done any advertising either offline or online. We plan to advertise ICT Systems to meet the objectives of increasing brand awareness, introducing the company to the Vancouver business market, and increasing the number of new clients. ICT Systems is at a stage at which it needs to implement promotion strategies to increase the number of new clients. The company has gained most of its customers through referrals and obtained a significant growth rate. However, in order to move to the next phase of growth and profitability, the company needs to spend resources to plan and implement significant promotion strategies. Otherwise, the growth will flatten over the years. We plan to advertise ICT Systems in Business In Vancouver (BIV) newspaper. We think BIV newspaper is a good media for advertising because the readers of the newspaper are potential buyers of ICT Systems services or products. Business in Vancouver is the leading news provider in the Vancouver business market; over two third of BIV readers hold senior positions and have decision making powers to make purchasing decisions. Therefore, readers of Business in Vancouver could be potential customers of ICT Systems. The message of our ad is going to be a very simple message. We try to convey to our audience who we are, what we do, and why we are different. The ads will run for a period of one year for a total cost of $

68 4.5.6 E-Newsletter All of our promotion efforts that we have discussed so far are designed to help us with our acquisition goals. No formal retention strategies has been implemented to retain existing customers expect some casual relationship building. Due to competition, we believe that we should start implementing formal retention strategies in order to maintain our existing clients. Therefore, the objective of ICT s e-newsletter is to retain the existing clients. The e-newsletter will be designed to inform clients about the new technologies and trends and their strategic benefits. The e-newsletter will also have a section to keep customers updated about ICT s latest developments and achievements. This is going to be a monthly newsletter that will be sent to our existing database of clients that exists within Salesforce.com. There would also be a section on ICT s website where readers can subscribe for our newsletter by providing their address. This can be used as a tool to generate leads, which will support our personal selling Campaigns ICT Systems with the help of its newly hired sale employee started to send few campaigns to its potential prospects. These s were very simple and included a brief introduction about ICT Systems and a PDF file attached that described who ICT is and a brief list of the company offerings. The main objectives of these s were to generate interests from potential buyers. ICT Systems used Constant Connect as their provider. Currently there is no plan for changing the system provider because it meets the basic marketing needs of ICT Systems. However, we plan to change the message of these s to make them more targeted and informative. 60

69 massages would be customized to target specific clients needs. For example, if we know one customer operates in specific industry vertical, we would send them an that fully describes ICT services that are designed for their industry. If we were lucky to know more about any customer and their business needs, we would customize the s to cover solutions that might help their business. This targeted messaging tactic requires us to create one page collateral for each of ICT s offerings. There would be two types of customer collaterals. Type one would be based on product or solutions offerings. Type two would be based on each industry vertical segment. Our list will consist of any newly acquired leads that we think are good targets. Marketing and sales are both responsible for producing and launching these campaigns. It would be a joint effort between the two teams Co-branded Call Centre Campaigns ICT Systems has launched two co-branded call centre campaign using Cisco call centre. The result of these campaigns and their success rate is not available yet. We think that it is important to leverage our partnership with Cisco and utilize these free resources to promote ICT Systems. Therefore, we will continue running these campaigns. Marketing will be responsible for coordinating and launching the campaigns in future while sales will take responsibility of following up with the leads and turning them into actual buyers. The main objective of these co-branded campaigns is two acquire leads. The cost of these campaigns is free for ICT. 61

70 4.6 Market Research Tactics Marketing research has done as part of this marketing plan to make decisions for the various areas of the plan. The research was done on the industry, market, customers, and competition. Due to marketing budget constraints, all the marketing research information was obtained from free sources such as library, Internet, ICT consultants, and Cisco s partner portal. We will continue research using the same free resources to obtain the latest information about our competitors offerings, our customers needs, and the degree of satisfaction with ICT s products/services. However, due to a need to increase marketing efforts to support sales, we plan to purchase market research information from IDC, the Canadian industry market research leader. The objective of outsourcing market research function from IDC is to learn more about the industry trends and market needs to support personal selling. IDC offers various Canadian market intelligence and advisory services. After an in depth analysis and comparison of each of their product offerings, we chose to purchase IDC s Market Acceleration Program service for an annual cost of $10,000. We believe this annual membership will significantly increase productivity of our marketing efforts. According to IDC, the benefits of the program are: An independent, written appraisal of ICT Systems capabilities and the market opportunity OR a written case study of how one of the customers used ICT solution to address a problem Affordable access to the industry's best and most comprehensive global market research 62

71 Direct access to IDC's expert Senior Analysts to sharpen ICT message, identify opportunities and potential pitfalls. Participation in IDC Canada events such as conferences and web-casts 63

72 5: Marketing Budget this plan. In this section we talk about spending requirements for meeting the objectives of We think that the most efficient way of implementing this plan is to hire a full time marketing professional who will responsible for executing this plan. The responsibilities will include: - Developing website content including case studies, product information, solution benefits, video production describing each solution and their benefits, customer testimonials, and more. This person can leverage a wealth of resources available on Cisco sites to build and develop custom materials for ICT Systems. - Creating sales support tools such as customer collaterals, sales cheat sheets, and other sales training documents such as new products information, value proposition, and ICT differentiators. - Being a single point of contact for coordinating all promotion materials such as print and web advertising as well as web 2.0 marketing. - Launching and executing campaigns including writing targeted messaging and building templates. Also, developing and launching monthly e-newsletters. 64

73 - Coordinating with Cisco channel manager to plan and launch co-branded campaigns utilizing Cisco resources. - Developing new products sales training materials as well as customer facing materials to heavily promote ICT s new offerings. This individual will work directly with founders of the company as well as the sales employee and is responsible for making sure that all marketing materials convey a consistent message to customers. S/he is also responsible for building a ICT brand a stronger brand in the Vancouver market. We estimate the cost of hiring this individual is between $60,000 to $70,000 a year. We plan to include this cost in our marketing budget for year

74 Spending Requirements Table 3 - Current Revenues Breakdown Marketing Consultant/ Employee Print Advertising on BIV Seminars/ Events $70,000 per year $7000 per year $6000 (based on two events per year; each cost approximately $3000) Website Design Improvement $6240 Search Engine Optimization $1420 Marketing Research $10,000 per year Total Annual Marketing Budget $100,660 Total Actual Spending* $94,160 *Cisco Systems has a joint marketing fund program that helps small partners to promote their co-branded products or solutions. Therefore, Cisco Systems will reimburse some of the marketing costs of this plan. Cisco will cover 50% of the advertising as well as technical seminars. As the result ICT will only pay $3000 for the two seminars and $3500 for advertising on BIV newsletter. This will reduce the total marketing budget to $94,160. Note: we are in contact with our channel partner to find out if we can get fund for additional marketing initiatives. If we do, it will be reflected in this plan and our marketing budget. 66

75 6: Performance Analysis We measure financial implications of this plan in terms of contribution to the company s revenue. We do not cover a full financial analysis here because only relevant marketing expenditures and their effects on total sales considered applicable to this plan. Additional $1.5 million in revenue is estimated according to the financial goal of this plan, which is to double the revenue in the following year. We expect to have 100 clients in the following year. Each deal would be around $30,000. Therefore, our estimated total sales forecast is $3 million dollars. Assuming a profit margin of 30%, the total profit margin in dollar amount that is resulted from this plan would be $450,000. Therefore, this plan will contribute $450,000 to our profit margin. Our marketing costs are $94,160. Our return on our marketing spending is 4.7. This is a healthy return. In the worst-case scenario, if we achieve only half of our target that is $225,000 additional dollars in profit margin, we still achieve a return of 2.3. This is clearly a feasible plan. 67

76 7: Implementation Plan Table 4 indentifies the key implementation programs and those responsible. Budgets are clearly established. Managers are informed of their main program, and they are on board with implementation. This plan includes only the programs to be implemented this year. We will be tracking plan-vs.-actual results for each of these programs and discussing them at our monthly meetings. Marketing would be in charge of monitoring and changing the plan if unanticipated events occur. 68

77 Table 4 Implementation tasks and timelines Task Start Date End Date Responsibility Sales Cheat Sheets Oct-09 Jan-10 Marketing Customer Collaterals Customer Case Studies Oct-09 Jan-10 Marketing Oct-09 Jan-10 Marketing Website Content Oct-09 Jan-10 Marketing Website Design Oct-09 Jan-10 Marketing/ Graphically Speaking Webinars Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing and Sales Video Production Oct-09 Jan-10 Marketing and Sales Podcasts Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing and Sales Campaigns Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing and Sales Monthly E- newsletter Co-branded Campaigns Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing, Sales, and Cisco Channel Manager Advertising on BIV Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing Seminars Jan-10 Dec-10 Marketing, Sales, and Technical Market Research Oct-09 Oct-10 Marketing 69

78 List of References Works Consulted: Canadian Small and Medium Business Markets: Special Study by IDC: Filing Information: October 2006, IDC #IDC-ITAC2006, Volume: SMB IT Budgets North America: It s Back To Basics: Special Study by FORESTER, Michael Speyer, March 2008 The State Of Enterprise IT Budgets: 2008: Special Study by FORRESTER, Andrew Bartels, March 2008 Refining Market Segmentation Through Cluster Analysis: Targeting SMB 2.0s: Special Study by FORRESTER, Paul Edwards, February 2009 Hollow Out The MOOSE: Reducing Cost With Strategic Rightsourcing: Special Study by FORRESTER, James Staten, March 2009 Recession and Impact on Outsourcing: Special Study by IDC Websites Consulted: