.KEYWORD peeditorial0301
.FLYINGHEAD FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
.TITLE Selling on enterprise time
.DEPT
.SUMMARY In this month’s editorial, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz ponders the phenomena of "enterprise time" and the ways this requires hardware and software developers to re-think the way they do business.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
The idea of portable, mobile, inexpensive, everywhere computing is blowing a lot of minds, especially in the corporate world. It makes sense, since, as we’ve seen in the past few issues of PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition, the possibilities are mind-blowing.
We now know that Palm devices can be inexpensive data collection tools, they can be pervasive network access devices, they can be powerful legal assistants, and, as we discuss further in this issue, they can even be helpful assistants to doctors and other medical practitioners.
Out of the box, Palm devices provide some powerful basic functionality. We’re all familiar with the To Do, Memo, Address Book, and Date Book applications. So, just as soon as the batteries are installed, Palm devices can completely blow away your typical daytimer.
And yet, we know that they can do so much more. They’re general-purpose, extensible computing devices, and specialized applications and hardware can tailor Palm devices for unique needs.
And that’s where things start to get exciting. And complicated.
When a consumer (even a consumer who works for a company) goes out to buy a Palm device, it’s usually the result of some consideration. But once the decision is made, the plastic is plunked down, and the sale is done.
What’s interesting is that the "sales cycle" works somewhat similarly in the corporate world. Individual employees, often reading this esteemed publication, have been inspired to go off and purchase their own Palm computers. Sometimes the purchase is expensed, but more often than not, the employee buys his or her own device.
This is exactly how PCs originally made it into the corporate world. Companies and MIS departments in the early 1980s weren’t really prepared for personal computing. So employees went out and bought their own devices.
In 1983, the boss I had was a product marketing director. He gave tons of presentations, usually using overheads. When he first saw the Mac, he realized he could use MacPaint (seriously) to make better overheads. So he went out and spent something like $3000 of his own money for an original, floppy-based Macintosh and dot-matrix printer. This was before PowerPoint. "Presentation software" wasn’t even a concept to most of the computing world. But John knew he’d do his job better (and make a better impression) with nicer presentations, so he bought the Mac.
Although much less expensive than John’s Mac (and much more powerful), Palm devices have been entering the enterprise in much the same grassroots way. For an example of this, see "Agribusiness in the Palm of your hand" elsewhere in this issue.
But that’s now changing. Companies, some inspired directly by articles here in PalmPower’s Enterprise Edition, are now seeing the incredible potential of Palm devices and are outfitting their entire teams with customized Palm devices.
And, just like that, the sales volume increases tremendously,. But so does the sales cycle.
You see, it takes awhile for a company to decide on, procure, and integrate a computer solution. Rarely will a click-through on a Web site produce a massive corporate sale, though it may be the catalyst for one. Then, information is gathered, plans are made, budgets are proposed, options are discussed, integration issues are identified, memos and emails fly, and eventually, maybe six months later, a purchase happens.
Sometimes, even after all that effort, the first purchase is small. That’s because many companies "pilot" their projects, testing out the new program on just a few devices to see if the concept works and bears fruit. Then, after some reasonable testing time (say three to six months), a much more massive purchase occurs, allowing for widespread deployment of the solution.
Some may view this delay as "bureaucracy" and decry it as part of the corporate disadvantage. But they’d be wrong. It just takes time. Time to figure out something new, time to think through all the options, and time to figure out how to make it work for thousands of people.
What’s interesting is that, as much as the amazing power of Palm-based solutions is screwing with the minds of those in the corporate world, the enterprise sales cycle is screwing with the minds of those used to selling to Palm device consumers.
Take, for example, a software company that might sell a spreadsheet program for the Palm OS. When selling to consumers, a potential buyer might see an ad in a publication like PalmPower, click a banner, and place an order. One order. But now, in a world where enterprises are seriously accepting Palm devices as major corporate resources, a potential buyer might see an ad for that same database in our Enterprise Edition. Rather than buying, he or she might send an email asking IS how the database integrates with corporate legacy systems. An informal discussion group might be assembled to evaluate the database product and experiment with how to integrate it into, say, an Oracle backend.
Nine months later, out of the blue, the database software company might get an order for a thousand-user site licenses.
It might be a windfall sale, but it also poses an interesting marketing challenge. In the consumer world, it’s way easier to correlate advertising clicks to sales. In the enterprise world, it’s almost impossible.
This is the conundrum that Palm’s aftermarket is only just now beginning to confront. Our Enterprise Edition readers control or influence technology budgets totaling, across our readership-base, more than fifty billion dollars (and that’s only a conservative estimate). Yet it’s extremely difficult to correlate clicks and sales in the enterprise world.
Somehow, it all seems to come down to faith…and a good message. With the amount of money now attainable from enterprise sales, Palm’s aftermarket is going to need to learn patience.
And that’s where you, dear reader, come into the picture. You’re most probably someone a developer wants to meet. You probably work on a much longer cycle time than the typical developer is used to. If it seems like you and those calling on you are speaking different languages, it may be up to you to translate. Remember that most Palm developers are used to selling to individuals and that your timeframe is something they need to understand better.
The Palm OS-based solutions that are available to you are so powerful that it’s probably worth a little extra coaching time.
PS: As many of you know, I write many of my editorials right on my Palm V, using my wonderful folding keyboard. One of the disadvantages of doing this has been that I’ve had to split my editorials into two memo items because they often cross the 4,000 character boundary. I know, I know, applications that correct this problem have been around forever. However, the fine folks at Cutting Edge Software (at http://www.cesinc.com) graciously provided me with a copy of their new QuickOffice 5.0 product, which includes QuickWord, a pleasant little word processor. I used QuickWord to write this editorial, which clocked in at over 6K, and I didn’t have to split up my article. Very cool. See, if you suck up to the editor-in-chief by sending free stuff, you just might get editorial coverage. That’s the way the review process works. Gotta love it. In all seriousness, if you’d like your enterprise-related product or service to be reviewed in PalmPower Magazine’s Enterprise Edition, send email to steve_niles@palmpowerenterprise.com.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Cutting Edge Software, visit http://www.cesinc.com.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6f12b
